| SEX AND WORK / SEKSI JA TYÖ
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An installation by TEEMU MÄKI.
What is work? What
is whoredom? When and what work is exploitation?
What should one be wiling to sell and buy – and
what not?
Its core is an hour long video in
which prostitutes I've interviewed tell about
their work. The installation also includes
photographs,
an essay, a poem, a drawing, a sculpture, another
video and a lounge for thinking about and talking
about sex and work.
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LIST OF CONTENTS:
1.
Sex and
Work – an Essay about Whoredom
(Teemu Mäki, 2007–2008)
2.
What Is Whoredom? – Sex
Workers Tell, parts 1 & 2:
Annika's Interview & Saara's
Interview (video, 2008, 57min)
3.
Unabridged version of Annika's
Interview, as a photocopied text leaflet
for the audience to take.
4.
Unabridged version of Saara's
Interview, as a photocopied text leaflet
for the audience to take.
5.
Olli and Hanna of Pizzeria
Mare Chiaro (A photo of
small-scale enterprisers / workers,
2008)
6.
Office Worker and Strip-Tease
Artist (A photo of a worker and
of an erotic worker, 2006)
7.
Erotic Work (Two photos of
the strip-tease artist Pauliina, 2008.)
8.
Sex as Work (Three photos
of a Finnish sex worker at work, 2007)
9.
Whore
and Exploit (An old video
work of mine, 1995, 62 minutes, which
also dealt with sex and work. Usually shown looped on a
flat-panel monitor, with two pairs of
headphones and two armchairs.
10.
Desperate Disco (A
drawing of sex work in Africa,
16.5.2005)
11.
He ovat katkeria, mutta juuri
nyt heillä on kaikki (They Are
Bitter, but Right Now They Have
Everything, a poem – in Finnish – about
sex work in Africa, 7 pages, from my
poetry collection Kuolevainen
(Mortal,
WSOY 2008.)
12.
Kuka / Who (A
sculpture/collage, 2008.)
13.
A lounge
for thinking and talking about sex and
work.
14.
Thaimaalainen
(A piece of music, composed by Max
Savikangas, lyrics by Juha-Pekka
Hotinen. From the Badminton-Opera by
Hotinen, Savikangas and myself. Not
shown in gallery Peri 2008.)
15.
Kaliki,
a video work, 2006. (Not shown in
gallery Peri 2008.)
–
About 62 pages of text is
included, yet I believe that the
visual and other visceral elements are
at least as important as the texts in
this piece. However, here on the web I
do not show the videos and do not
publish the texts of this work either
– thus this preview is quite
one-sided.
–
This installation is a work
in progress. The starting point was a
philosophical/political article about
prostitution that I wrote for my next
book of essays. I wanted to juxtapose
this text with the experiences and
opinions of prostitutes themselves. In
the installation I present my
theoretical view – the essay – as pure
text, but allow the prostitute's view
to take various forms: the
interview-video, photos of a
prostitute at work and the detached
run-down of the video dialogue on
paper.
The upcoming versions of
the installation will hopefully be even
more extensive. To the interviews of
Finnish prostitutes I will interviews of
Estonian, Russian and German
sex-workers. I will also add more photos
of prostitutes, not just "at work" but
also at home, as subjects of portrait
photography or painting. However, the
work will remain flexible and smaller
versions will still be available if
there is no room or need for the bigger
ones.
–
I'm the copyright holder
of all the parts of the installation,
but many people have helped me to make
it, as the list of credits reveals:
VIDEO – the
interviewed: Annika & Saara.
Interviewer: Teemu. Camerawork and
sound: Ville Hyvönen. Post-production of
image and sound: Heikki Kotsalo.
Editing: Heikki Kotsalo & Teemu.
Director: Teemu Mäki. PHOTOS – Teemu.
The models: Arja, Hanna, Kati, Olli,
Pauliina and the anonymous. Assistant
photographers: Kenneth Bamberg, Kimmo
Koskela, Paula Lehto. Post-production of
the photos: Kalle Kataila, Kenneth
Bamberg, Teemu. Printing of the photos:
Jarkko Sopanen / Printlab (TAIK).
The first version of the work was
exhibited in the Kehaturg / Sex Market
exhibition in Tallinn Art Hall, 2007.
The name of the work was then What Is
Whoredom? / Mitä huoruus on?. Since then
I've modified and continued the work and
changed its title. The 2. version's
premiere was a solo exhibition of mine
in the Photo Galleri Peri, Turku,
Finland (18.9.–12.10.2008, www.peri.fi).
Elina Bäckman, Minna Havukainen and
Mirka Muukkonen helped me to put up that
show. Thanks.
–
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