Interview with Elsa Tölli
Mad House: Trash Lover is an online work that was published by Mad House Helsinki in December 2023. What would you like to tell the reader about the work? What aspects of the work are important to you?
Elsa Tölli: I wanted to bring out the slag and shreds behind the finished works. I love notes and messy diagrams. I wanted to save abandoned films and sketches that may never make it to the big show. But all the pages of a work are potential beginnings of something, beginnings that a visitor can flip through and collect in their own notebook. For me, the process of making is often more important than the end result. The work, which changes every day, shows friendship, bridge-building, violence and emotion, and colour. Scanning in the Oodi library is my favourite pastime which may also show in the final result. ;)
MH: You worked as an online artist-in-residence at Mad House until October 2023. What kind of things did you work on during the month?
ET: I asked myself, what is a residency? I thought it's time and space, a place you can fill with whatever you want. I thought about what I wanted to spend my time on. For me, a residency was a place to turn outwards: to explore the environment more deeply, to look deeper into problems and to discuss. I started collecting details and raw materials in my basket. Every day I made a small amount of material: sketches, film stills for unfinished film, raw fragments of poems and notes. I drew in the trash. I went to see shows and read books that I talked about and debated with people close to me. I also collected scraps and blurbs left over from performances, to see how details and unfolding days always brought new things to digest (and love).
MH: Have you previously made a work for the online environment? What was it like to work with coder Heikki Lotvonen and graphic designers Kiia Beilinson and Hanna Valle?
ET: I used to make virtual houses as a child, fascinated by the parallel reality and how things from real life could be moved online and you could invent a new story for them. Nowadays, I've slowly moved away from the web.
Working with Heikki, Kia and Hanna was enriching and rewarding! Together we came up with ideas on how to transfer handmade material to the web. I heard things I didn't know were possible: images changing on the screen, lighting situations and texts behind the texts. As I am not familiar with code myself, I was very impressed by their ideas and professionalism. We were interested in combining analogy and virtuality. It would be a pleasure to collaborate in this way again! :)
The fourth issue of Mad House Helsinki Publication features Trash Lover, a playful online work compiled from the notes of poet and performer Elsa Töll.
