bag of hate

I performed this piece invited, in an event called You Are No Longer Trembling Carcass, in the gallery Maa-tila in Helsinki.

I have always been told that I have a fiery temperament. That I am a ”raivopää” (rage-head) and when I was a kid I was called ”Hullu-Allu” (Crazy-Allu, nickname for Alisa). Aggression, when able to move freely, allows the seizing of the moment: to live the life, to make the performance, to as them out, to tell them how you feel, to go for a run to sing with the birds. The aggression needs to be freed and channeled otherwise it tires the body trying to escape, it depresses the mind.

The depression blocks not just the anger, but as well joy. But here comes the conundrum: How to express the anger that frees the aggression and the laughter, that you need to live and to breath, in a society that demands it to be suppressed? You must do it hidden! Hide the emotion!

So, In Bag of Hate I tried to let out my cry of anguish in a socially accepted manor: I hid it inside a bag. I marked to the audience my space with a tape and when I got inside the bag I let out my misery. I released it by screaming, by moving forcefully and less forcefully, by running, by gagging, by shouting. Until there was left no more to let out, I began to sing.