#74 AIR BLEKINGE – AINO OJALA

#74 AIR Blekinge – Aino Ojala

AIR Blekinge är ett konstnärsresidens som drivs av Konst i Blekinge och Kulturcentrum Ronneby konsthall. Residenset har ett Östersjöperspektiv och fungerar som ett kreativ och
konstnärlig katalysator både för de deltagande konstnärerna och för regionala samarbeten.
Konstnären Aino Ojala (F), var en av konstnärerna som deltog i årets upplaga av det konstnärliga residenset.

Aino Ojala arbetar gärna med lera eller textil – material och former med taktila och sinnliga kvaliteter, tillsammans med elektronik och tekniker där verk och betraktare rent fysiskt kan påverka varandra. Hon är verksam i Helsingfors, men kom Ronneby för att göra något helt annat än vad hon vanligtvis gör. Hör om hur det utvecklade sig i den här intervjun, producerad av Susanne Skog.

Aino Ojala – Process text about the time in AIR Blekinge

My process began with a desire to reduce things rather than produce them. I cut a hole in the paper.
I started carving a hole in the wood. Thoughts run, run, run. So fast that I can't keep up. I go along with the rapids and can't stop or grasp them. Sometimes, the stream stops, and then there is nothing.

There was an idea I was meant to implement. An idea that I couldn't see; I couldn't bring it to my
consciousness from all the files in the mind's messy archive. I thought about the layers I couldn't see
through. Cloud masses and seas. I wondered what it would look like if water were transparent like
air, allowing you to see all the way to the bottom of the sea.

I thought about the things that are required of me in the world and the things that I think are
required of me, even though they are not, and I tried to let go of all strings and nets. I tried to create
an aura around me that didn't allow anything unwanted to pass through. I am inside a large egg, in
silence, floating. Beneath the layers, in the middle.

I thought about power lines, water pipes, physical and digital networks. Mysterious cables that
connect things to each other. They go underground, inside walls, on surfaces, in the ceiling, visible
and invisible. I thought about the water that flowed through the house, Massmanska Kvarnen.
My time in AIR Blekinge allowed me to focus and access through the layers. The small town, the
river, the sea, the graphic studio and Massmanska Kvarnen shaped my thinking and being. I looked
for analogies between internal and external. I worked with several printmaking methods during the
residency, including woodblock, linocut, embossing, drypoint, and etching. While I typically work
on sculpture and textiles, I was drawn to woodcarving due to a pleasant bodily memory of it from
years past. Etching was new to me, yet I discovered unexpected connections between this technique
and the themes I work on. Experimenting with different methods invigorated my creativity, as new
materials and tools introduced fresh ideas, inspiration, and enthusiasm into my work.