Pilvi Takala

Pilvi Takala’s performative interventions are acute investigations into societal structures and normative canons that dictate human behaviour in a variety of cultural contexts. Her process involves focusing on and integrating a given community and creating works in different mediums to share her experiences with a wider audience. For example, she spent two weeks impersonating a wellness consultant in Second Home, trendy co-working space in East London; worked as a trainee in an international accounting firm Deloitte; was banned from Disneyland for being dressed as Snow White and disobeying the park’s rigid rules. The video works that document Takala’s disguised and disruptive interventions are fascinating, humorous and tragic insights into systems and their failures. ...

Founded in 2011, Carlos/Ishikawa’s program is dedicated to considered and ambitious exhibitions that offer diverse artists’ perspectives on structural, socio-cultural, and political questions. The program focuses on international artists with often wide-ranging, multi-disciplinary and experimental practices. There is an interest within the program of challenging the aesthetic conventions of conceptual art, and a focus on art that is able to operate on an affective, emotional level as well as a rigorous intellectual one. The gallery has offered many artists their first solo show, many of whom have gone on to receive recognition internationally. ...