Reija Meriläinen, Stabbing, 2014

Meriläinens contribution to this video program is the most metaphoric representation of ideas around the human body as object. It focuses on slabs of tactile geletin, which is repeatedly stabbed with a serrated knife. This slow motion violence is arguably a reinterpretation of ideas around the body in sculpture in for example early surrealist works by Giacometti. The fleshy pink tones of the work emphasise the human aspect of the material. Here the inanimate becomes anthropomorphic. Reija Meriläinen is a Helsinkibased artist working with moving image, sculpture and installations that combine the digital and physical. While alluring and beautiful, her work often includes elements of violence, and has a visceral sense of the body that is communicated through haptic materials. She has exhibited atGalleria FAF and the Kunsthalle KuvaTila in Helsinki, and was recently included in a group show at Seventeen Gallery, London.