White Wall | Armi Teva: Slow, Silly, Go 20.11.–14.12.2024

“Last summer I was sketching a piece for a kindergarten wall. The concept of the work was based on the untamed imagination of children. I started the sketch by remembering what it feels like to play. I drew circles on the park field with the tip of my shoe, trying not to step on the seams of the tiles. I sat on the sandbox and drew wavy surfaces in the sand with my finger.

When I started working on the White Wall exhibition, I noticed that something had been left smoldering from the past summer. I wanted to work by experimenting and exploring, freely without expectations; by playing. I took the opportunity to stop and think about how to find something new. I tried what would happen if I mixed sand with glaze. What would happen if I filtered chamotte from red clay and used it for painting? What would happen if I put iron nails plucked from the floor boards into the kiln? What would happen if I dug up broken wine glass shards from the cracks in the summer terrace floor, and used them for glazing? What happens if you’re not too afraid of the wrong results? “Tule hyvä kakku, älä tule aina sama kakku.” i.e. become a good cake, don’t always become the same cake.”