Hop to Hope – Iona Roisin

Third part of the exhibition series Hop to Hope

Iona Roisin’s exhibition features two video works completed in 2017. The works in the exhibition are based on the artist’s personal experience and focus on honesty and vulnerability.  

 The video work Rain Poem shows a summer landscape shaken by a thunderstorm. The patter of rain and gusts of wind in the foliage form a soothing background for the spoken track and enclose the viewer into the artist’s inner world. The video was both written and shot during a summer rainstorm at the Mustarinda artist residency in Kainuu. At the time of shooting, Iona Roisin felt they had a genuine connection with their feelings and experiences as a teenager. While editing the material, Roisin began to doubt the authenticity of the memories. They believe their experiences may be confused by nostalgia, mixing with movies or perhaps other people’s memories.    

In the video work People assume I’m an only child, Roisin films Iain, their autistic younger brother in their family home. The everyday environment and the conversation between the siblings bring a warm and confidential tone to the work. The video was exhibited in the artist’s graduation show. At that time, Roisin had planned a project about their relationship with Iain for years. It felt hard for many reasons, but primarily because Roisin was concerned about their unequal roles in the project. In the end, the artist added a text layer to the work, in which they open up about their relationship and reflect on the ethics and process of an artist. Roisin asks: How to be careful, how to be gentle, yet how to still be honest, how to strike a balance, and then how to still make the thing?   

Iona Roisin (b. 1989) is a British artist who lives and works in Helsinki. They graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki and The Cass School of Art in London. Their main media are writing, video and installation. Roisin’s visual expression is subtle, and they often focus on fleeting moments and the uncertainty of life. Their works have recently been shown at Taidekoti Kirpilä, Lappeenranta Art Museum, Tampere film festival.  

The exhibition belongs to the series Hop to Hope, a series about togetherness, friendship, love and hope. Annually, the museum invites an international expert to plan an exhibition series for WAMx. The series for 2023 was planned together with Roos Gortzak, the director of the Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art in the Netherlands. It consists of five shows by artists based in the Netherlands or in Finland: Rory Pilgrim, Mounira Al Solh, Iona Roisin, Home alone collective (Emma Sarpaniemi and Adele Hyry) and Afra Eisma.