Five minutes by a vulva at the museum

Feminist spectator in the ‘Elixir’ by Pipilotti Rist

Leena-Maija Rossi, Kristiina-instituutti, University of Helsinki researcher is interested in the visual representation of gender and sexuality, takes us on a critical tour of Kiasma, to immerse us into the recent world of Pipilotti Rist, entitled ‘Elixir’. She questions may a feminist spectator critically view works by an artist who admits herself to be a feminist? Furthermore, she asks whether there is a place in the current art world to stop adding to the hyped-up reputations of ‘superstars’ and ‘top names’ and to be able actually to discuss their work.

Rossi approaches the visual language of Rist, her contemporary, from the perspective of the 80’s, focusing on the effects of the music videos she used to watch repeatedly on MTV. Rossi tells how she used to really enjoy those quirky effects back then, but re-encountering them at Kiasma, through work created within the past few years, these effects have ceased to entertain.

When taking a look at the content, Rossi takes the installation ‘Apple Tree Innocent on Diamond Hill’ (2003), as an example: this work consists of a moving image projected on to transparent packaging and plastic items, suspended from Finnish birches. Rossi finds the idea that the artist has been collecting the plastic objects since ‘85 and recycling them in this work appealing, but why not also recycle the “innocent apple tree” as well, or is it more ecologically viable to fell trees for each exhibit than to transport them from country to country?

About corporeality and feminism, Rossi concludes: “There are different feminisms and that of mine and that of Rist seem to be in some kind of discordance”. In the work entitled ‘Homo Sapiens Sapiens’ (2005), Rossi finds the outlook of Rist to seek to conceal the lesbian interpretation present in the spooning female bodies, following the manner familiar from commercial pop culture. With ‘Gina’s Mobile’ (2007), an installation comprising a 5-minute video loop about ‘feminine sexuality’ taking a close look into the female organ, Rossi finds a fleeting moment where their feminisms would meet, only to separate again with a thought:

“How long can one watch this in a museum?”.