In 2002 the Finnish artist Antti Laitinen embarked on an extended performance piece entitled Bare Necessities, a work Richard Long and Vito Acconci might have dreamt up had they ever collaborated. Laitinen decided to live in the forest for four days without provisions of any kind - except for state-of-the-art camera equipment with which to document his return to nature. 'I had with me all the latest cameras, proper digital gear, which I used to document being in the forest. In the pictures taken in the forest I became increasingly expressionless and hardened. By the end, the pictures were even badly focused. Documenting my own existence and showing the photographs and videos served as a justification for the project. I got a reason to test myself, but also to test the way being in nature and gradually losing strength affect the documentation.'
This need to put himself, to test his physical limits while recording it - to leave lasting evidence of a time-specific performance - runs through much of Laitinen's work to date and is a key aspect of his practice. In 2004 he put himself literally through hopps - his piece Sweat Work demanded Laitinen working up a considerable sweat on a running wheel every day for two weeks. He would then take off his clothes and lie on top of photographic paper, allowing his perspiration to leave an imprint of his body. 'The sweat of my body created a faint figure. I lifted the paper on the wall. I made a new picture every day for two weeks. Pictures kept darkening on the wall, and after two weeks the first figures had almost disappeared.'
In 2005 Laitinen spent three months on a residency at the BALTIC in Newcastle, UK, during which time he created Walk the Line. By scanning a self-portrait onto a map of Tyneside and the Northumbrian countryside, he created a route to follow which was then recorded as he walked it, using a satellite recorder fastened to Laitinen's arm. In his 2005 video piece entitled Snowman Laitinen took his absurdist tendencies to a new and highly humorous level by documenting himself 'in a flour storm' with a carrot strapped to his nose.
Antti Laitinen will be performing at Forum Box in Helsinki on 10 February 2007. Laitinen is participating in a group show entitled 'Malestuff' at Gallery Signe Vad in Copenhagen (March 2007).
To see more of Antti Laitinen's work on Your Gallery click here.
Melissa Johnson
Bare Necessities, 2002
Sweat Work, 2004
Snowman, 2006
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