It's been a while since I last wrote anything. Been keeping busy though, been going to museums and all that. I went to see the "On the Wall" exhibit one last time before it closed. I really just wanted to see Adel Abidin's video installation "Micheal". I remember seeing it originally in Kiasma many years ago and since it was on display again I thought I'd take the chance to review it. It was as uncanny valley as I remembered it, the makeup on the actor playing Micheal Jackson is creepy AF. One new thing I noticed was that all the lines Micheal says in the video are lyrics from his songs. The messianic vibe was as strong as I remembered.

I also got to experience Hans Rosenström's "In Dependent Structures" again and it was even more impressive on the second viewing. It truly reshaped the way I think about artistic work, just amazing. It's a piece of work you can feel on your skin.

I went to HAM the other week and saw a few exhibits they had. They had one called "Mieliala" about art in Finland during the second world war, an exhibit I thought I'd hate given how much I hate war and how suspect I am of anything I think glorifies or even slight glamorizes it. I, however, thought it was quite good. The selection of art was broad and many works had a light playfulness to them that betrayed a grim shadow when viewed. One painting, that I was unable to check the name or artist of, was a portrait of a woman in sunlight, behind her a light green wall, a slight smile on her lips with her eyes closed. When looking at it closer a grimmer side becomes evident: her skin is white, like a corpse, her closed eyes making her seem dead. The side of her face in the shade has sunken features and slowly begins to look like a skull.

Other hightlights were some of the graphics pieces that were technically very impressive. Also two busts, one made of marble of a Finnish solider in white uniform, glazed eyes like a classic Greek statue, a handsome, but blank and lifelss expression on his face. The bust next to him was cast, made with a modern style, rough features, depicting a man with an eye missing, a sad look on his worn face.

On the personal art collection front I recieved the print of "Little birdies" by Yuliya Litvinova. It is a bit of an awkward size so I need to buy a frame for it. The image was way too impressive not to own a print of it. I also found my old book "The Art of the X-Files". It is full of such amazing images, likely one of the coolest books I have ever owned. I'll write more about it later, there are many pieces in it that have stamped themselves onto my mind.

I also went to a gig last week, I went to see Wilco Johnson in Tavastia. It was a good show, lot of older people in the audience, I've never seen so many people drinking non-alcoholic beer at the same time. THe whole band was very well rehearsed, very tight. It was cool seeing Ilyn Payne rocking out. The concert was a bit loud though, but all concert are too loud for me these days.

Still, over the weekend I went to see a few documentaries in DocPoints, the documentary film festival. I watched three this year: "Buddha in Africa", "Jawline" and "iHuman". I can talk about most of them in more detail later, the first one was about Chinese monks starting Buddhist monasteries in Africa where they teach orphans kung-fu and cynically spread Chinese cultural influence, the second was about a Tennesee teen who is trying to escape poverty by becoming a social media star, cyberpunk as hell. The last one, iHuman, was my favorite and a vision of the goddamn fever-dream nightmare the future is going to be. Not only was is telling you how insane the AI minds of the future are going to be, but how AI minds are already running things and controlling, if by accident, the political process of the West. I left feeling a mixture of giddy fear and numbing apathy. Loved it.