Pilvi Takala: Breaching Experiments

Finnish artist Pilvi Takala's first solo exhibition in Britain showcases her performance pieces, unpicking conventions created within micro-social environments, at Sheffield's Site Gallery.

Breaching Experiments brings together several of Takala's recent film-based works as well as two performances to take place during the exhibition. Her films are often filmed covertly, capturing and observing or in some cases re-enacting seemingly bizarre social situations. Awkward, provoking, uncompromising and at times unbearably embarrassing, Takala exposes the unspoken rules of society and draws intrinsic conditions to the surface.

The videos include for example The Trainee. Takala took up a marketing trainee post at Deloitte's HQ in Helsinki and documented the increasing social anxiety she provoked in her colleagues by her seemingly odd behaviour. Another film absurdly sees Takala dressed as the Real Snow White, documenting her polite perplexity as she is refused entry to Disneyland Paris where visitors are actively encouraged to don their favourite character's costume.

The first UK edition of Takala's performative lecture, Money Making Strategies That WORK, will take place in Sheffield during the exhibition period. This motivational talk, developed through rigorous research of the tactics of money making motivational speakers, promises to show attendees how it is possible to get anything they want, effortlessly. Tickets are £10, but the artist offers a 200% (£20) refund for anyone who is not satisfied after the event.

The exhibition has been curated by Laura Sillars, Site Gallery's Artistic Director, and has been realised with support from the Finnish Institute in London, the Finnish Embassy London and The Elephant Trust.

Pilvi Takala: Breaching Experiments
14 September – 10 November 2012
Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 5.30pm

Preview Thursday 13 September 6–8pm, Tickets £10
Performance 3 November 2012

Site Gallery, 1 Brown Street, Sheffield S1 2BS
www.sitegallery.org