Artcenter Ahjo, Kytö/Liekki-space: Timo Takala

A cup of coffee Timo Takala's contemporary art exhibition Artcenter Ahjo | Kytö/Liekki

In Timo Takala's video work Cup of coffee, the protagonist prepares a cup of coffee; both cup and coffee.

The day's activities start and stop when you can't find a single clean cup to drink your morning coffee. The work describes step by step the process of creating a new cup, from hunting for materials to making work tools and finally to the expected reward, drinking coffee.

A cup of coffee, compared to the rhythm of modern people's life, is a humorous work in its absurdity, which, however, has larger questions behind it, albeit very intertwined with everyday life. The process of creating a coffee cup reveals something about our relationship with the mass production of objects and materials, which frees up a large part of our daily use of time for things other than making the things we need. Of course, the majority of us sell this freed time in exchange for salary income, at least indirectly, to enable the same mass production, whose wheels we also keep spinning with the money we earn.

The almost craftsman-romantic character of Takala's work turns into a strange mirror image of consumer society. However, the work does not yearn for a past time gilded by nostalgia. Although the camera's batteries and electric cables are not visible in the pictures, balancing in front of and behind the camera - focusing on filming and making at the same time - keeps the creator's feet firmly in the present day. In her work, Takala uses not only traditional handcraft methods, but also do-it-yourself solutions that can be shared on the internet. Making it yourself, feeling the materials and exploring the world like a child through them are an integral part of Takala's artistic work, where traditional knowledge and modern technology combine to form a part of modern craft culture.