A Kind of Continuance / group show with sculptural text objects / 2022

Comprising of soaps, books and clothing, A Kind of Continuance is a series of text objects which consider desire as a thing that transcends time. Roisin wanted to engage with the enduring qualities of the erotic memoir, but as is so often with queer history we arrive at loss. The majority of what has become canon was written by and about cis gay men – how many other forms of eroticism have been omitted or removed? And are there ways we can access what was not preserved? The objects in A Kind of Continuance express a denial of this loss. Although the books were bound with empty pages as a quiet testament to what cannot be read, Roisin slipped keep-sakes between the pages; tiny moments from a kind of everyday-eroticism. That which is not monumental is so easily lost to time. Playwright and poet Eira Stenberg said “only the heart can burn without turning to ashes.” If we consider erotic energy similarly, perhaps it also endures – as an echo or in a sensory form, unbound from time.

Produced for Years That Repeat Their Days at Taidekoti Kirpilä, Helsinki. Curated by Mariliis Rebane, with Freja Bäckman, Shia Conlon, August Joensalo, Minjee Hwang Kim, Emmi Venna, and Bogna Luiza Wiśniewska.

Documentation by Mariliis Rebane