The Slow Business of Going,

The sculptural collaboration of Dylan and Océane connects to states of excitement and weariness. Following a material-poetic approach, they imagine encounters of static and mobile bodies, objects and desires. Their entanglements grow into sculptural situations, images and systems. The metamorphosis of matter and thought is at once quotidian and dream-like. Light steel structures, assemblages and paper pulp reliefs were formed in the shifting rhythms of affection and distance, hesitation and impatience, vitality and withdrawal. The works result from material and existential negotiations, time-intensive processes, and gestures of attention and placement. The artists have been interested in the variations of social, transpersonal and private rhythms. Accelerations and dispersions were part of the working process, as well as questions arising from the thematic ground of change and stagnation. Where are we going? For how long can we keep up this pace? How long does it take to recover, to dry, to cure? Rhythms produce spaces and inhabit our bodies and relationships. These dynamics are also woven through mechanisms of power and distribution of agency. The only thing as important as being, is to keep going. But what or who decides the beat? There are bodies appearing flat from, or flattened by speed, drifting around and joining into islands. Projects. Images extruding from surfaces, limbs fumbling with extensions or simmering down to the bottom. Hours seized in the night. Deadlines. Discharge. Someone is always on the go, while others get stuck. Trying hard to keep up, inevitably falling behind. Ok. Comrades in time and in stand-by mode. Dependent, supported stillness. Cocooning. Things tend to be on top of other things, to accumulate. Snakes and ladders around the privileges of mobility and belonging. Lock-down. Patience dance. There are also sleeves of intimacy, imprints in between the lines of movement. The artists and the exhibition are kindly supported by Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Suomen Kulttuurirahasto and Paulon Säätiö. Océane Bruel (FR) and Dylan Ray Arnold (FI/CH) are Helsinki based visual artists collaborating alongside their individual practices. They create sculptural objects and installations, printed matter and videos. Their practice moves around the ambivalent material spirit of objects, places and systems. Océane graduated from Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Lyon in France in 2015, and Dylan holds a master degree in Sociology from Helsinki University and graduated from Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2019. Their collaborative work has been presented in solo shows at Glassbox, Paris (2019), Titanik, Turku (2017), as well as in group shows in the Nordic countries. They were together in residency at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2019) and at Mustarinda, Finland (2016). Rooftop Press recently published Paste of Time, their first artist book. www.oceanebruel.com www.dylanrayarnold.org