KRISTIN WIKING

(un)actual being of things
2025
MUU Helsinki Contemporary Art Centre, Helsinki (FIN)


Objects are taking over the room. They bring stories full of misunderstandings, small gestures, and coincidences — a peculiar kind of poetry. The sculptures function like marionettes; however, instead of being controlled, their bodies become actors in their own right, moving with a purpose we have yet to decode. In the spirit of Heinrich von Kleist’s writings on puppets, the sculptures appear free from the self-consciousness inherent to humans — capable of an innocent, clumsy elegance and, in that, discovering something akin to freedom. This line of thought favors letting go of the self-oriented struggle to be recognized and accepted by the ones alike. This exhibition invites you into a space where you are accepted by those slightly different from you.

 

The sound of a galloping horse — gallop, gallop — is produced by a washing machine. Images of animals convey the simplest forms of movement. When the horse figures’ legs move in a collective gallop, accompanied by sound, a dynamic emerges. You can’t help but project human drama onto the sequence of events. Is it a race, a leisurely walk, or a ballet? You stumble upon clay feet in sporty sandals in front of a mirror and notice holes in the walls. The space of the show feels infinite.

 

Someone might simply see a chair moving strangely, while someone else might interpret it as a commentary on human habits, labor, and automation. The exhibition explores absurdity as a speculative possibility, rooted in everyday contrasts between rest and labor.

 

The intended occupant of the armchair is absent. Yet the armchair continues its life without them. If we try to locate the boundary between what is a living creature and what is merely a thing, movement appears to be a decisive element. Those that can move, we call creatures; those that are fixed or lie still, non-creatures. This can be read as a joke about the old rules of organic chemistry — now in the context of robotics.

 

At a time when Cartesian dualist divisions — in which the life of an object is dismissed as meaningless existence — are finally being questioned, the exhibition takes a step forward. It activates a unified ecology between machines, animals, the sea, and us — standing in the middle, searching for a new sense of belonging. You are led into accepting this network of equally important actors. Otherwise, after leaving the show, you may begin to feel lost in a grid of things you’ve created — and the ones you have not yet destroyed.​​