Text

▼

Don't avoid me at the vast, mean, ethereal space Eoin O’Dowd, Anastasia Artemeva & Steve Maher Galleria Loisti 16.-29.10.24

Don't avoid me at the vast, mean, ethereal space, brings the artists’ works together for the first time. In this show, humans handle natural disaster preparation and consider the absence of spiritual value in human labor relations. Here we approach the every day from the point of view of the magical, the devotional, and documentative. Artemeva and Maher take us to Japan where they created their collaborative project developed in 2023 while Anastasia was undertaking residency with Arts Initiative Tokyo, supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation. Together with Steve Maher, they document human anticipation of natural and man-made catastrophe. Anastasia Artemeva and Steve Maher work collaboratively to present an artistic reflection of disaster preparation as it is culturally formatted in the metropolis of Tokyo city, where commodities for averting apocalyptic futures are as banally presented as any other consumer domestic products. Eoin O'Dowd's ongoing work invites viewers to examine the complex relationship between labor capital relations and the multifaceted impacts—physical, psychological, and spiritual—that arise from this dynamic. It addresses the exploitation of both physical and intellectual labor while questioning the absence of communal and spiritual value in our increasingly consumer-driven and alienating society. Using reclaimed factory materials, field recordings and devotional symbolism - their work highlights the spiritual damage caused by working conditions and the exploitation of workers' bodies and souls, reflecting a deepening wound on our collective psyche. Each artist challenges societal expectations and conventions, often focusing on seemingly ordinary or mundane activities to reveal underlying power dynamics or hidden injustices.