Kuvan Kevät25 Interview with Nish Ellenor Rose
Kuva student ambassador, Snowdrop, interviews Kuva student ambassador, Elle, about their Kuvan Kevät experience.
Snowdrop: Would you like to introduce yourself?
Elle: My name is Elle. I am a second year masters student here at the Academy of Fine Arts, and I’m originally from Australia. I have a science art based practice.
Snowdrop: So how did you choose Uniarts?
Elle: It started with a dream and then led to an analysis. So I studied biology in Australia and then when I graduated I had the dream of studying fine arts in Europe, but I wasn’t really sure where. So then I travelled for a while and I was living in Amsterdam, and I researched all of the different art schools and here was the only one with a bachelor program in English and that was affordable and in central Europe.
Snowdrop: How would you sum up the bachelor program you had here in Uniarts?
Elle: It was very, let me find the right word, preparing of art life.
Snowdrop: Okay preparing of art life, would you like to explain further?
Elle: Yeah I think now I feel super ready to work as an artist. I feel like I know my rights and what to do and how to do it and all of these like techniques and what’s available.
Snowdrop: So the bachelor was preparing and the Masters, what would you say it was?
Elle: For me continuing. And this kind of, bit more of a professional vibe.
Snowdrop: So it sounds like you would recommend the program to other people?
Elle: Yes.
Snowdrop: What has your experience been in Finland as an international artist?
Elle: I think for me it’s been really good. I’ve been completely amazed by how much opportunities are here, like opportunities to travel and show art and learn and collaborate. I think that’s been really phenomenal. And I feel like the land and the space and all the ideas here have really impacted how my art has formed. Yeah and I feel like I’ve settled in quite a lot.
Snowdrop: Is there any advice you’d like to give to anyone in the program?
Elle: Yeah I think stay calm and look after yourself. Stay organized, don’t do more than you can do. Say no to a lot of things as well. And I think it’s really important to make time to do a lot of art. Cause I feel like when you’re in art school and as an artist a lot of it can be like reading and writing and emails like 90 percent of the day. I think it’s good to be like no for this little bit of time I’m just going to like draw or try a different material or have some ideas.
Snowdrop: So talking about materials what are you working on for your Kuvan Kevät?
Elle: For the Kuvan Kevät exhibition I’ve had an ongoing project for four years called the cloud project and I will be showing a slice of this piece. So in the art gallery, it’s actually going to be on the terrace, I will have 356 of these cloud pictures that I’ve taken, printed quite small.
And then I have this fluffy rug that I’ve woven by hand that people can touch. I want them to imagine that it’s a cloud so it’s people touching a cloud. In my practice I’m trying to make ways to bring people and nature closer together particularly in this kind of soft and gentle way like with this rug and touching. And then I have a dance piece where I imagine myself as a cloud and dance as a cloud so very very slow body movements. So that’s the art part and then in the written part I’ve been researching and reading about how clouds are changing with climate change and also what people in the old times thought about clouds.
Snowdrop: So how would you say that the school has supported the creation of your work?Elle: Greatly
Snowdrop: What is the difference between working on Kuvan Kevät compared to the autumn bachelor exhibition?
Elle: I think I find that the Kuvan Kevät has more hype and stress about it which I’ve kind of really decided to say no to. I felt like the bachelor exhibition was kind of naturally a bit more relaxed because it was like smaller. With the Kuvan Kevät there’s like fifty people showing, the bachelor one was about twenty.
Snowdrop: What will you miss about Kuva?
Elle: The technicians. The people that help in the workshop especially in printmaking department, because they have been so helpful, and they seem to know the answer to everything. I feel like after graduation I’ll be fine without tools and without the workshops but I’m not sure how I will survive without technicians.