Pink Twins’ exhibition at Hippolyte will feature two recent moving image works. The mosaic-like piece The Eternal (2021) is made up of images from Chinese classical gardens, while the animated work The Transient (2022) seems to be taken over by an avalanche of hybrid plants.

The video footage for The Eternal has been shot in real gardens in Suzhou and Shanghai, China, but has been edited through digital image processing and 3D animation. The work features slow landscape shots that are filtered through animated crystals, prisms and lenses into geometrical and partly abstract tapestry. Chinese classical gardens encase a synthesis of a millennia of landscape design, architecture, poetry, and painting. The idealized artificial vistas of the gardens have inspired artists for centuries in creating archetypal landscapes, which in turn have influenced their design. Pink Twins’ garden piece alternates in emphasising the built and aestheticised landscape, its details, and the placement of the gardens in urban settings in metropolises.

In The Transient, the main stage is given to the plants growing in and outside of the gardens and their seemingly uncontrolled but algorithmically regulated rhythm of growth. In this fully animated work the plants of the garden and the wild, growing above and around the perspective of the viewer, simultaneously enchant with their beauty, and overwhelm with their exponential multiplication. It combines the equal presence of method and chance associated with growth, present both in garden design and often also in art making.

The two works presented together at Hippolyte forge an interesting dynamic between a man-made environment and the flora changing by its own accord. The works are presented in a single large-scale projection, with a total duration of 25 minutes. The intense music, typical of Pink Twins’ works, adds to the immersive nature of the installation.

Helsinki based duo Pink Twins, Juha and Vesa Vehviläinen, have worked in the fields of media art, moving image and electronic music since 1997. The boundaries of human perception, immersion and physicality are central to their works. Pink Twins implement their complex animations through parametric design and programming. Their works are performed not only in exhibitions and festival screenings but also as live performances combining music and video projections. Pink Twins have been seen on all continents, and in all kinds of venues from concert halls, festivals, theaters to churches. In recent years, Pink Twins have also made audio and video works directly online, e.g. the sound piece Infinity for Kiasma’s online art collection. In Helsinki, Pink Twins have recently performed in a visual concert at Bio Rex, where they, together with UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra, interpreted the music of Twin Peaks in the autumn of 2021. Hippolyte has the pleasure of showing Pink Twins’ first exhibition since the beginning of the pandemic.

The exhibition has been supported by the Arts Promotion Center and the Visual Arts Promotion Center VISEK.

Pink Twins will perform a live concert at Hippolyte on Thursday 28 April, 5:30 p.m. Free admission. Welcome!

Pink Twins

1.–29.4.2022
Valokuvagalleria Hippolyte