Video installation with a player piano. Kiasma collection. Kiasma in Helsinki 1998, Vigeland Museum in Oslo 1998, Uppsala Art Museum in Sweden 1999, Inova in Milwaukee 2001. Ormeau Baths Gallery in Belfast 2002, Helsinki City Art Museum 2003.
The theme of the video installation is misinterpretation and isolation. The title Four Songs, As a Matter of Fat refers to the literal mishearing of a song in english As a Matter of Fact. This is intended to be a the sort of enjoyable error that has occured throughout the non-Anglophone world ever since rock music.
The installation consists of video monitors that are installed among a grand piano. The videos that play in the monitors form a long narrative that threads the spectators throughout a apartment. Each song has its story and a route through the corridors and rooms of the apartment, while voices in english and finnish recount twin narratives.
The Four Songs present the family dynamics from a child’s point of view. The songs deal with childrens’ observations of themselves and people outside the family circle. The actors performing in the video (Jenny Robsoand Stig Baumgartner) tell their own points of views. Their repetitive and obsessive emotions, thoughts and fantasies, coupled with facial expressions, gestures and postures, create the impression of their “social gender”.
Producer: Kroma. Music: Timo Muurinen. Sound Design: Timo Muurinen. Camera: Raimo Uunila. Actors: Jenny Robson, Stig Baumgartner and Hanne Ivars.
