Eyes Jr (2021-2023) with Ellie Hunter

Solo exhibition with videos, textile works, paintings, collages and installation

"I remember you saying once that you wanted to live inside as many bodies as possible, Mother, not just the five bodies that came from your belly. Art is a non-linear form of reproduction, moving forwards and backwards in time. I want to be part of something like that. I want to be pregnant with your legacy, Mother. To decompose and birth you with the others. Maybe then we wouldn’t all be so lonely."

Eyes Jr. is an exhibition featuring individual and collaborative works from artists Ellie Hunter and Anni Puolakka. The show houses sculptures, paintings and a film which serves as its main protagonist, cradled inside of a large-scale inflatable corporeal structure which the audience enters. Entitled Eyes Jr., the film follows a group of five siblings on the day of their mother’s funeral. Through a continuous conversation set around a table, the siblings cut cake and discuss their relationship to their recently deceased mother, positing and debating their varying opinions about the role of a mother and their respective reproductive politics. The film was shot by the artists and the characters are portrayed by hand-sewn dolls controlled like marionettes from out of shot. The mother of these sculptures, who had recently passed away of old age, was herself also a sculpture, in her case large-scale, metal and covered with multiple eyes. She was not made by the artists but rather by a particularly well-known French artist who died in the early 21st century.

The installation was originally commissioned by Cordova (Barcelona) and The Finnish Cultural and Academic Institutes’ Together Alone 2.0 project. The first iteration took place at Cordova 5 December, 2021–19 February, 2022. It's opening featured a performance by Jokkoo collective. The Eyes Jr installation has subsequently been exhibited at Kunsthalle Bratislava and Trafo Gallery (Budapest).

Fabrication of the inflatable: Maguette Dieng

Photos by Roberto Ruiz (pt 1) and Leontína Berková (pt 2) unless otherwise mentioned

Pt 1: Cordova, Barcelona (2021)