how is she supposed to know there is a silent h in ”hjem”, so it is spelled ”hjem” and not ”jem”
how would she know how to spell it right if she didn’t know it meant ”home”
and if she googled ”jem”, only a hardware store would show up
– Kirke Meng / Forlaget Gestus
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ikkööhäik – I'm ok
with Anne Naukkarinen
2018

Performance
1 h 30 min
Forlaget Gestus / in a  private apartment in Copenhagen
Artist's book
96 pages
Published and edited by Forlaget Gestus, DK
Phonetic transcriptions for the book: Alma Manley
Design: Mads Wolff / Eks-Skolens, DK
Print and bookbinding: Eks-Skolens, DK
Edition of 100​​​​​​​
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ikkööhäik – I’m ok was a site-specific project made in Copenhagen, Denmark, with a starting point in the local language.  We do not speak Danish, but we approached the language through its texture, sound, rhythm, and interpretations. The performance and the artists’ book ikkööhäik – I’m ok moves between an existing language and a new language located in between Danish and Finnish.

I collected the verbal material of the work in Copenhagen by listening people speaking in public spaces and writing down what I hear and how I hear it: hils stiine – de baiju omsii – oukei – de ee megafiiert – ikkööhäik ikkööhäik. Anne approached these words as scores: she interpreted the words by voice and movements, created gestures for each utterance. We worked with the embodiment of language, its emotions and logics, and the possible spaces created by words. How do meanings emerge and sway? Who is the body who moves and talks? What kind of world language creates? Our interest was in the familiar yet strange quality of language, its physicality, and imaginative dimensions. 

The artists’ book ikkööhäik – I'm ok brings together verbal material, associative translations, and gestures developed for the work. The performance ikkööhäik – I'm ok was shared in a private apartment in Copenhagen, in the home of the curator Karin Hald. The performance also included a lecture by speech and language therapist Alma Manley and a reading by Hald. Due to the intimacy of the performance space, the work was not documented for the camera. 
Reading performance at the book release event at Bladr, Copenhagen, 30.11.2018. Image by Marie Raffn.
Read about the work:

Performoitua häikkää. Critique by Tuomas Taskinen and Ville Hämäläinen in poetry magazine Tuli & Savu, issue no. 97 Yhteisö

Poetry and Gesture – Two recent artist’s books gesturing into ambient space: ikkööhäik – I’m ok and Sentences by Solveig Daugaard at Mustekala.info (9.1.2019)

Interview Fysisk oversættelse with Anne Naukkarinen and Karin Hald (Forlaget Gestus) at Kunsten.nu by Mette Garfield (21.9.2018)

Interview New Poems at Statens Værksteder for Kunst by Helene Johanne Christensen (7/2018)
The book is for sale at:
Forlaget Gestus, Copenhagen
Bladr, Copenhagen
Publics, Helsinki 
Lugemik, Tallinn
The work was supported by Finnish Cultural Foundation / Uusimaa Regional Fund, Arts Promotion Centre Finland, The Finnish Cultural Institute in Denmark, The Finnish-Danish Cultural Foundation, Nordic Culture Point, Statens Værksteder For Kunst, Frame Contemporary Art Finland
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