Conflab

In Off-Colour at Helsinki Art Museum, 2023.

Conflab stages a debate between a meteor, an astronomer and an AI, plus our own projections.

Healthcare workers’ saddle stools; fake leather; resin rocks; vinyl floor stickers; steel trays; digital scans of marbled ink prints (mineral pigments, ox gall, turpentine, potassium carbonate, aluminium sulphate, carrageenan) face-mounted on acrylic. 

* dialect variant of confab, a discussion

** if impersonating a meteor, the sound of sizzling bacon is a close match

Foreground: Conflab (2023). 3 chunks of rock sit on split-seat saddle stools, ergonomic seats used by healthcare workers. The saddles are upholstered in pale pink, lurid pink and black. Image: Helen Korpak

Foreground: Conflab (2023). 3 chunks of rock sit on split-seat saddle stools, ergonomic seats used by healthcare workers. The saddles are upholstered in pale pink, lurid pink and black. Image: Helen Korpak

Conflab (2023), installation view. A jagged chunk of rock sits in the cleft of a split-seat saddle stool. The stool is upholstered in pale pink pleather, which gathers in folds over the lips of the seat. Image: Helen Korpak

Conflab (2023), installation view. A jagged chunk of rock sits in the cleft of a split-seat saddle stool. The stool is upholstered in pale pink pleather, which gathers in folds over the lips of the seat. Image: Helen Korpak

Conflab (2023), detail. Greyscale marbled ink print like a slice of a stony interior, grains and bands of minerals in suspension.

Conflab (2023), detail. Greyscale marbled ink print like a slice of a stony interior, grains and bands of minerals in suspension.

Conflab (2023), installation view. A hunk of resin rock sits erect on the hot pink seat of a saddle stool. Image: HAM/Viljami Annanolli

Conflab (2023), installation view. A hunk of resin rock sits erect on the hot pink seat of a saddle stool. Image: HAM/Viljami Annanolli

Conflab (2023), installation view. A steel tray holding a red marbled ink print lies on a concrete floor. Image: Helen Korpak.

Conflab (2023), installation view. A steel tray holding a red marbled ink print lies on a concrete floor. Image: Helen Korpak.

Conflab (2023), detail. Clumps of rusty red globules are separated by veins of bright blue-white, as if cells under a microscope.

Conflab (2023), detail. Clumps of rusty red globules are separated by veins of bright blue-white, as if cells under a microscope.