I
was born 1981 in Helsinki where I was schooled from primary school to art
school (Finnish Academy of Fine Arts). My primary school teacher from 3rd
to 6th grade (age 9-12) had us collect money to make a trip together
to Sweden on the 4th grade. The next year we collected enough money
to spend a week in Mallorca and the next year a week in Crete Island. Studying
seemed to be secondary to these efforts. We went from door to door selling huge
packages of toilet paper (you can't really say you don't need it). We asked in
shops for product donations, which we would then use as prizes in a lottery.
The lottery tickets would be again sold door to door. The most lucrative idea
was to form groups performing a traditional Finnish Christmas “musical” that
has a cast of 4 singers. I think we were 3 or 4 groups of 4, consisting of 1 or
2 OK singers and of 2 or 3 less OK singers. The singing skills didn't really
matter regarding our target customers. We toured around bars and restaurants in
Helsinki on Friday nights and although we as 12 year olds wouldn't be legally
allowed in, it was such a surprising proposal that we were often let in to
perform and collect money from the drunk adults. Even better idea was to make a
deal with the cruise ship company that take people from Helsinki to Stockholm
over night and back the next night, famous for every one getting even more
drunk than usual on tax free alcohol. We got a free trip (for the 4 kids and
one teacher as a guardian), free food and permission to perform and collect
money anywhere on the ship. Each group made 3-4 trips. We learned that even if
you seem to be at the wrong place the wrong time, you’ll be fine if you just
act confident.
My
mother is an architect and she started her own business ‘95, I worked for her
part time for 10 years. I would draw the shadows on the sketches she made or
spend hours coloring drawings of houses with color pencils, later I did some
simple jobs with digital drawings. I even got to design the colors for some
buildings. I would also clean or do anything that would be a waste of an
educated architects time. Other jobs I had as a student were cleaning a school
during summer holiday and a marketing research job interviewing people on the
street that was very badly paid. It was better to volunteer in a film festival,
where you got free meals and could see all the films for free.
As
my native country offers grants for artists I was lucky enough to get a
one-year grant in 2007. I survived with this money for 2 years, as I was living
for free in the flat provided for my husband Ahmet Öğüt by Rijksakademie in
Amsterdam. 2009-10 I was myself a resident in the Rijksakademie and in 2011 I
received a big Dutch art prize, Prix de Rome. Finnish and Dutch taxpayers have
supported most of my work as an artist, but working for money has contributed
to my art practice a lot. I even took a job as an art project. I worked as a
trainee for a moth for a multi national consulting company Deloitte in 2008. I
also seriously tried to become a part time poker professional to support my art
making. My brother makes a huge living playing poker online, so I had the best
coach and some of the right genes, but somehow I couldn't reach beyond making 1
dollar an hour, so I gave up. I made a video piece about my brothers poker community,
though.
15.02.2012
