5–28 Feb 2016 Tanja Konstenius, Alles goed

Hippolyte Studio

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Tanja Konstenius’ Alles goed (Everything All Right) approaches the theme of otherness through language, which is a powerful part of human identity. Language is an instrument that expresses who we are, separating and unifying. By learning a new language we take unwillingly a role, assimilating the contents of the language.

In the two channel video piece a Ghanaian man finds himself between the known and the unknown. One of the projections follows his Dutch spoken improvisation and the other shows his residential environment in a suburb of Amsterdam, Netherlands. The video installation depicts an imbalance between a person and their environment. It examines displacement and the small steps that people take in order to become part of a community.

Tanja Kostenius (b. 1982) is a visual artist based in Amsterdam. Konstenius work focuses mainly on photography and video and often takes a form of portraiture in one way or another. Her backround is in both portraiture and documentary photography. ”I like to simplify the images to draw out the most important, the person and her or his emotions. Studying the way people present themselves through the camera I have become interested in the performativity of actions. I am especially interested in displaced people like myself, false identities and alienation,” Konstenius describes her method of working.

The exhibition has been kindly supported by: AVEK/Elena Näsänen

5–28 Feb 2016
TANJA KONSTENIUS
Alles goed

Hippolyte Studio
Yrjönkatu 8–10 courtyard, 00120 Helsinki, Finland
+358 9 612 33 44, www.hippolyte.fi
Tue–Fri 12–17, Sat–Sun 12–16

(image: Tanja Konstenius, videostill from Alles Goed)