...so said Roger Daltrey (of all people) in the lyric to some song or other. I was put in mind of this today browsing a museum in Turku, Finland, where I cam across a video installation by a Finnish lady Artist called Kaisu Koivisto. She works with a variety of media, including still photography and video, and has done an extensive amount of work documenting the remnants of the Cold War along the Finnish/Russian border. Old missile silos, launch pads, the interiors of the various hardware and people-ware facilities that have been gently mouldering in the forests ever since. 

This is exactly the sort of work I most enjoy making: the remnants of human activity, stains and traces on the landscape, the empty places where people have been and, though departed, remain in discernible in the things they have left behind. My own series Lyonesse and My Space are in similar vein though Koivisto's presentation is more consciously anti-aesthetic: she doesn't generally try to pretty up the composition or the tonality of the pieces, preferring to leave them "as found", which is a perfectly valid approach though one that then depends on seriality to carry it from visually dull to creatively exciting.

The most evocative piece in the show is a video installation of an abandoned swimming pool (I assume from one of these ex-military facilities).

She has shot HD video from both ends of the pool, identically framed. Each video is presented on opposite walls of a gallery room, with the visitor chair positioned centrally on the side wall. After a few moments, gentle ripples spread across the water in both frames, and the camera sits with them until they die, Then the video loops.

The effect is stunning and leaves me profoundly jealous: I was working last year on a similar video series (involving water and grass) with the conceit being that the images would appear on HD screens famed as if they were photos so that when the viewer entered the gallery, they seemed at first to be back-lit still images. Only on close viewing would it become clear that there was very slight motion involved, and motion that was not in effect 'going anywhere' but merely repeating, like the tide, without resolution. I gave up because I couldn't find a convincing and cost-effective way of getting the screen-in-a-frame technology to work for a series of twenty.

I'm glad I gave up when I did. Koivisto's effort is way better than anything I had in mind and I enjoyed watching hers a great deal more than I enjoyed tinkering with mine.

I must meet her though: in another room was a series printed (very large) on fabric and hung slightly off the wall so as to offer a little movement. I have also been experimenting with this for the last 18 months and prefer the results of my printing on silk to hers on thicker canvas, though the canvas holds the colour better.

Aboa Vetus, Ars Nova, Turku, Finland, until 23rd September

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