The photo-based kinetics installation Dialogue with the Flows focuses on the interconnectedness of spirituality and ancient medicine, and the metaphorical possibilities of healing concepts like religion. Dialogue with the Flows investigates the relationship between spirituality and the ancient medical practice of cupping. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, heated cups are applied to certain acupuncture points according to the Meridian grid on the human body, as well as parts of the body that are afflicted by pain. Cupping removes blockages in the flow of qi, one’s vital energy. Cupping in Europe and the Middle East is based on humeral medicine, which dates back to the ancient Greeks and is based on the idea that temperament and health are related to the balance or imbalance of four "humors" in the body: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile.

Instead of basing my design on traditional points or patterns, I used the figure and symbol of cross. The cross is one of the most ancient human symbols, used by many religions, including Christianity. It is frequently a representation of the division of the world into four elements, or the union of the concepts of the divine and the earthly. In Dialogue with the Flows, the concept is treated, while the subject or patient is cured of the concept.

Dialogue with the Flows is an installation of multiple copies of the same image of a man from behind, with his arms spread and a cupped cross figure on his back. The images hang from the ceiling in rows. The narrow space between the images, just wide enough for visitors to walk through, places the viewer in the intimate space of the work. Best visible from the side, the images have a stirring effect as the viewer’s movement creates interference patterns or new wave patterns among the images. The repetitive images and their movement reflect upon the movement of the skin during the cupping process and the ever-changing position of religion and spirituality in society.

Artist talk

On Nomadic Practice by Kristiina Koskentola
Saturday 19th of March 15-16.00 hrs
Location:Three Shadows Photography Art Centre Library
155A Caochangdi, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China 100015
 
Koskentola talks about her  practise in general and its nomadic nature, traversing between China and Europe and the importance of this movement between continents in order to be critical about her practise and herself. She talks about her interested in the globalised state of culture in artistic practises, that  is changing perceptions of identity and the artistic approach to it. She will reflect on current exhibition in the Three Shadows ‘Dialogue with the Flows ‘and go briefly to the history of cupping: The ancient technology of cupping applied in this project is being subjected to –next to spiritual and religious- (self) exploration and it’s historical, cross cultural, nomadic and socio-political context.

References: among others French curator/theorists Nicholas Bourriaud