Text:Dodi Espinosa, Published at Metal magazine 19.
Finnish-born Heidi Kilpelainen is the other face of HK119 (Heidi Kilpelainen 11 September, her birthday) and she is part of a new wave of art, music and video performers at the London scene. While rising in South east of finland near the russian border, she used to spend a lot of time alone and her only companion was the world of creativity and imagination, “I remember making ‘films’ on a long paper scroll,I made drawings on it, then by pulling the scroll and telling the story to my audience it became my ‘film’, my audience was neighbors kids, my dad, etc…”
In London, before studding at St Martins and working with artists like Goshka Macuga, she came up with HK119 in 2003 and finally in 2005 was chosen by Bjork as her favorite artist of the year, “I like Bjork, she is one of a kind, a great artist and always interesting, maybe she liked the fact that I do everything myself or the make ups, all around a lady as I make some of my own clothes too, lets have HK119 fashion line soon!”
Since she started she has been working with zero budget and her influences are between nature, DADAism and David Bowie until Scary Monsters album, “His chameleon world fascinated me, the man who fell to earth!”
HK119 is signed to One Little Indian Records, the label on which she has released two albums, HK119 Debut and ‘Fast Cheap and Out of Control’ produced by ‘I Monster’, and now, she is currently working on the third album. Her debut album was accompanied by about 12 videos, all “DIY” (Do it your self), made in her living room and her second album has 4 DIY blue screen videos made in her studio, “I was learning Final Cut pro as I made them, so the last one (What am I) is my favorite, much more time consuming and previous work”. Talking about her performances, she debuted in shows with dancers and more recently solo act with video ‘clone’ dancers on the screen, costume and props, energy and passion… “HK starts when I get on stage or in front of the video camera, I followed the path of modernism from Futurism, Constructivism, Bauhaus to the 1920 health and fitness ‘movement’ that kind of took off in germany. I fantasized about events on a field with lots of dancers making gymnastic moves (hahahaaa on a zero budget), but I was also aware/making fun of the current ‘health’ body consciousness, the idea of getting fit for the future is also about ‘waking up’ to the changes in the world, loss of liberties and privacy, surveillance societies, health and safety madness etc… bonkers!”
Around 2005 a radio presenter called her “A woman who comes from the future”, maybe because in the time before Lady Gaga, in the mainstream, her ‘HK persona’ was too much and had to be presented as such, anyway, HK’s work is much more interesting as she started more than 5 years ago, with zero budget, producing hand-crafted videos, wearing crazy “DIY” outfits and now open to fashion designer collaborations, but withought compromising her vision.
Recently she is making ceramic sculpture with a project inspired by the Finnish saga Kalevala and the world of Shamanism. Personal experiences, nature and the subconscious fuel this new work, mixing materials like ceramic, fur, wood, cotton, and electronic cable.
Sculpture by Damien Hirst.