Verneri Salonen: Interminable Present

Verneri Salonen: Interminable Present
2020, kesto 02:28

Interminable Present expresses egalitarian existence in future cyberspace. In this unprecedented internet of things, all existence is online, intertwined in digital interfaces. The space is all-inclusive: inorganic and organic matter, culture and society, subjective consciousness and emotions all have equal agency. Artificial reality will be reality, a genuine way of being connected with the cosmic network of everything.

Artist Statement

My  name  is  Verneri  Salonen,  an  artist  living  in  Helsinki,  Finland  where  I  am  currently  a  graduate  student  in  the  Time  and  Space  department  at  the  University  of  the  Arts  Helsinki.  My  artistic  passion  is  to  explore  and  expose  our  exosomatic  interactions  with  the  world.  Exosomatic  instruments  are  instruments  that  are  produced  by  human  but  not  belonging  to  a  human  body.  They  can  be  used  for  example  to  produce,  exchange  and  consume  energy  in  some  form.

As  a  former  petrol  head  and  mechanical  engineer,  I  have  an  autobiographical  interest  in  exploring  this  subject  in  my  artistic  practice.  I find myself caught in an inner conflict between my old habits, desires and present day reasoning. Beloved memories associated to machines constantly battle in my head with what I have later come to understand about the toxicity of certain uses of technology. I don’t feel the need to demonize all tech, as it has proven to be a way for a better standard of living and many advances for example in medicine, engineering, information and communication. I just think we should be careful and find intelligent and sensible ways to use it and understand the real value of those recourses we put into them. I want to contemplate and work with this problem, because it feels topical for most of us living in the western civilization at the moment as our lives and societies tend to be overly reliant on technology with harmful outcomes in relation to human labor and environmental issues.

In  my  works,  I  recontextualize  and  reimagine  the  functions  of  everyday  objects  and  ideas  in  a  manner  that  is  surprising,  revelatory  and  at  times  humorous. By composing unexpected relationships between the industrial and handmade  objects,  the  works  invite  new  meanings  and  interpretations  of  their  uses  that challenge human logic. The shared conflict becomes expressed in the exhibited collisions between materials and systems that could at first glance seem contradictory.  I  strive  to  challenge the  authoritative  voices  of  our  society  by  addressing  issues  of  emancipation,  technology  and  caring  existence  at  large.