Maria Duncker’s masters a wide range of creative means, from moving image, sculpture, installation and dia show to live performances. Stories of an unfinished world are born out of everyday materials, movements, gestures and views; in which robust creatures, trolls and other touchingly misshapen characters lead their odd daily lives. They present themselves in many forms from animated foodstuffs (frankfurters, herrings and french fries) and souvenir animals to her sculpture projects featuring exploded stones weighing thousands of kilos. The video work Aluminium is one possible story of how the characters are found. In it a lumberjack figure played by Duncker sculpts faces – new friends to maybe stop for a coffee break with – out of felled trees with a chainsaw to the tune of electronic music.
Duncker’s video works, which are often originally shot on Super 8mm film, are energetic, rhythmic expeditions into different materials, movements, shapes and observations. Together with dancer Vera Nevanlinna, Duncker has also created several performances combining live performance with moving image. In Song of a Small Spruce dance and video works were joined together on stage. In Highway Sisters, which brought camera obscura technology into a van, the performers are outside and the audience is inside the van. 

text Kari Yli-Annala