Red Books
25.11.2025
One blink of an eye, Two lunar cycles, Three hours, Four moments, Five nights, Six summers, Seven millennia (working title)
25.11.2025
Gabriella Presnal
Time → Xx.Xx.2025 at Xx–Yy am/pm
Location → Osoite/paikka, Oulu
“Memory Wash” represents care during mundane moments in the home and re-connecting to cultural identity. The performer cares for a wire garment created from broken, upcycled cables. Now uncommon in our lives, the work invokes imagery of hand-washing laundry by the stream. Weaving broken internet cabling reflects learning one’s culture through digital means. Such as watching YouTube videos on the basics of weaving compared to having had it passed down through generations. It represents feeling artificial with one’s culture and nostalgia.
The act of washing creates a moment of drifting where one’s mind begins to wander and reflect on the past. Drifting between acceptance, guilt, shame, and imposterism when relating to one’s culture.
On a broader level, the wire garments reflect the progression of technologies, convenience, and being wrapped in abundance. The action of washing creates a strange experience of applying grooming to something that doesn’t need it – and actively makes the technology redundant. Highlighting the importance of in-between moments of care and maintenance even in our contemporary lives rich with convenience.
Photo: Niko Wearden
Image gallery
Artist:
Gabriella Presnal
Gabriella Presnal (b. 2001, they/them) is a Finnish-American artist based in Helsinki, Finland. Born in Germany and having grown up living in countries like Sweden, Canada, and multiple states in the U.S., they have been living in Finland for the past 7 years and have recently lived the last year in Copenhagen, Denmark. They are a multidisciplinary artist working with sculpture, painting, moving image (& 360 video), biomaterials, as well as applied fine arts.
At the root of their works, there is an ongoing conversation with themself on how they move through memory, culture, and understanding spatiality. Previous works have included communities such as queer international (multicultural, immigrants, language minorities) youth based in Southern Finland. They have also produced multiple community-based projects surrounding sustainability, precarity in the arts field, and imagining utopias.
