NEVER MARRY AN ARTIST

performance by JOSEF KA and MARK MAHER invited superstars ROI VAARA THE CHIEFS SEPPO RENVALL LIISA VÄHÄKYLÄ MAREK WALDEMAR WILLEM WILHELMUS camera VÄÄRÄ VEERA @SAUNAGALLERY HELSINKI 2022

Never Marry an Artist’ is a performance created by Josef Ka which premiered at Sauna Gallery on December 3rd, 2022, her alternative creative space in Helsinki, Finland. The work’s title is borrowed from a rule made by one of Josef Ka’s mentors and teachers, the Serbian conceptual artist, Marina Abramović. In Josef Ka’s performance, she and visual artist Mark Maher are wheeled rather precipitously about in two cage-like structures while wielding burning firebrands in a raucous, low-ceiling industrial space. They seem to have the intention to join their two flames together, yet life, fate, or maybe just the whims of the two artists enlisted to push their highly mobile cages (leading lights of Nordic performance art Roi Vaara and Willem Wilhelmus) seem to get in the way of their achieving this hoped for union. Their rather discordant mating ritual was brilliantly supported and amplified by The Chiefs, a hard rocking Nordic band with impeccable blues credentials, fronted by leading Finnish painter Jyrki Riekki. Camera: Väärä Veera.

Josef Ka sees ‘Never Marry an Artist’ as the first in a series of performance pieces inspired by rules made by different famous artists.

text: Mark Maher