Piece of Heaven is here. The installation where the textiles from different corners of the world meet. Artists sharing their stories about what is “The Piece of Heaven” for them. Installation combines pieces of heaven made of different textile techniques and materials with heavenly sounds describing the soundscape related these feelings of having “Piece of Heaven”. Some of the stories tell that the “Piece of Heaven” in the family and friends for someone else it’s the nature. The sounds related to these feelings describe the sound of snow when skiing, the cracking up firewood, children singing or precious sounds of water.

The textiles were produced by different artist groups and communities in Finland (University of Lapland), Russia (MASU), Australia (Arts Up and Fibrespace), China(BYICAA) and Namibia (UNAM). The sounds and stories were document by these same communities. Some of the sounds were recorded and collected by Satu Miettinen, Melanie Sarantou and Jari Rinne. Large part of the voices was collected through sound probes were the communities themselves documented the stories and sounds following written guideline.

This installation game together as collaborative and connecting effort. I’ll be enjoying and remembering the production of the art work for a long time. Artists coming together to think about the most important things for them, describing and documenting the soundscape related to this and sharing the stories and the textiles. The help of friends and colleagues during the process: Melanie Sarantou, Daria Akimenko, Tanya Ashutova, Maria Caley and Maria Keskipoikela. Getting sound artist Jari Rinne on board was amazing. The installation really starts to rock with the soundscape. As an artist I’m being pleased and happy. It will be amazing to see the images of the installation from Port Augusta from Voices exhibition. This installation truly is about “voices”.

From the researcher’s point of view I need to still listen and think about the stories and write about the process. The data and experiences related to the process are valuable. There is still more to come from “Piece of Heaven”.

Designers/Artists

Satu Miettinen design and concept
Jari Rinne soundscape

Artists

Heidi Pietarinen
Jenni-Liisa Yliniva
Essi Kuure
Melanie Sarantou
Eleni Sarantou
Maria Mbereshu
Laimi Ndapunikwa Mbangula
Risto Iita
Cheng Quansheng
Anastasia Lezina
Lyubov Kuznetsova
Anna Chernova
Daria Gorelona
Ksenia Trubnikova
Elizaveta Yarkova
Daniila Semyonova
Alexandra Sobyanina
Anastasia Dorogokuplya
Natalia Prikhodko
Yana Ilyina
Helen Burt
Ruth McTulloch
Georgie Sharp
Tammy Colman
Pam Stringer
Jonathan Hawkins-Clarke
Chris Nayda
Melva Waterman
Catherine Summers
Jan Hucks
Toni Foster
Liz McTaggart
Lauren Karp
Rosemaree Skelton
Tiffany Williams
Jackie Fiebig

Many thanks to the facilitators: Daria Akimenko, Tanya Ashutova, Maria Caley, Maria Keskipoikela, Vic Sarantou and Pasi Kelahaara

Many thanks to our exhibition master Leila Lipiäinen