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Sometimes Making Something Leads to Something

Hanne Salonen

Description of work

Sometimes Making Something Leads to Something
video
Length: 03:29

Shot by Pia Euro

The name of Francis Alÿs' work (Paradox of Praxis 1, Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing, 1997) suggests that nothing will follow from the action it depicts. However, it did lead to something - that I, enthralled by his work, would freeze my hands pushing ice cream down Kirkkokatu in Reposaari, in 2011. The friendly salesperson at Sale let me warm my numb palms under running water in the back room. I counted dozens of blisters that had suddenly appeared from out of nowhere. I have some vague recollections of the small healthcare centre where my friend Anna accompanied me. And then, the smallest pharmacy. The smallest one I've ever been in. How grateful a person can be for ointment and a pair of cotton 'Minnie Mouse' gloves! That night, I attempted to get in the sauna but in the end, because of the pain, had to resign myself to listening to the merry voices of others from the changing room. I held my hands up by my face to keep them from hurting. The next morning, I couldn't get my trousers on by myself. Anna helped me, pulling with both hands.

With time, the physical scars healed, but my hands are still sensitive to changes in temperature. Now, when I think about ice cream, Reposaari, Sale, crows, I feel hundreds of ants walking over my palms.

"She pushes white, cold and melting ice cream left and right down an autumnal street with her hands and feet, with a strong forward momentum. In the sky, light from within grey clouds. Alongside pastel coloured wooden houses, green grass sways in gusts of wind. Crows flit onto the road, walking in the shadowy autumn daylight. They peck at the trail of molten ice cream snaking down the road, and there's nothing else to see." – Kari Alatalo, Art critic

Bio

Hanne Salonen (MA, born 1974 Helsinki), photographer of politics. Does not know how to separate art from the rest of life.

My actions often start with the fact that there is a person, or people, and a place. I cannot, and do not wish to, control the movement and bouncing about that these actions produce in the minds of others. Probably, we also act this way in life in general - we think, speak or do something. And then, this (possibly) leads to something.