Heidi Marjaana Kukkonen

I study museum educational practices and encounters with abstract modernist art in my PhD project. As an important empirical part of my project, I curated an exhibition (Abstraction!) about abstract art for Children's Art Museum, a section dedicated for children inside Sørlandets Art Museum in Kristiansand, Norway. The exhibition displays Finnish Post-War abstract art from the Nicolai Tangen Collection together with interactive and digital solutions, focusing on multisensory experiences, movement and participation. I observe museum visitors both in traditional and experimental settings, with and without video, to study experiences with abstract art.

• What is the educational potential of abstract art?
• How do children and young people experience abstract modernist art in traditional and experimental museum exhibitions? 

While my theoretical framework comes from new materialisms and poststructuralism, Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze, I take multiple methodological approaches in my project (qualitative and postqualitative, new materialisms, a/r/tography).

Read more about the exhibition and curatorial work here:

https://www.skmu.no/pressemelding-nyskapende-kunstutstilling-for-barn-pa-sorlandets-kunstmuseum/

https://www.uia.no/en/about-uia/faculties/faculty-of-fine-arts/news-from-faculty-of-fine-arts/new-exhibition-at-barnas-kunstmuseum-abstraction!-curated-by-heidi-kukkonen

Deleuzian methodologies

New materialisms

Post Qualitative Inquiry

A/r/tography

Modernisms

Art and social relations

Abstraction

Abstract art

Museum education

Curating

Kukkonen, H. (forthcoming). “Abstraction in Action: Post-Qualitative Inquiry as an Approach to Curating.” In Skregelid, L. & Knudsen, K. (Ed.), Kunstens betydning. Utvidede perspektiver på kunst for, av og med barn og unge [Meanings of Art. Perspectives to art for, by and with children and young people]. Cappelen Damm Akademisk.

Kukkonen, H. (forthcoming). “The Virtual of Abstract Art. Museum Educational Encounters with Concrete Abstraction” in Sinner, A., Boyd, T., White, B., (Eds.), Artful Xchanges. Propositions for Museum Education. Intellect.

Elmies-Vestergren, A., & Kukkonen, H. (forthcoming). Playful Assemblage – Walking into Failures in the Digital Space. In Lee, N., Ursino, J., Mosavarzadeh, M., & Irwin, R., (Eds.) Walking Matters: Material and Digital A/r/tographic Explorations. Studies in Art-Based Educational Research. Springer.

Lehto-Vahtera, Johanna (Ed.), Holkeri, Eeva; Kukkonen, Heidi; Mäki, Ilona (Co-Editors). (2018). Kokoelmien avaimet. Museokokoelmien tunnisteobjekteja. Museoiden tallennus- ja kokoelmaverkosto TAKO / Poolin 6 hanke Kokoelmien avaimet 2013-2014. Turku: Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova Museum. https://www.aboavetusarsnova.fi/files/tiedostot/kokoelmien_avaimet.pdf

Kukkonen, H. (2017). Uncannyt oksymoronit subliimin lähteinä. Stéphane Thidet’n tuotannon tarkastelua. [Uncanny Oxymorons as the Sources of Sublime. Viewing Stéphane Thidet’s Art.] Master’s thesis. University of Turku, Department of Art History, School of History, Culture and Art Studies.

Kukkonen, H. (2017). ”Hammer and Medal. The Two Sides of an Artist’s Life in the Wäinö Aaltonen Item Collection.” In Ovaska, E., Aurekoski-Turjas, M., Kormano, R., (Eds.), Wäinö Aaltonen: Poseerauksia. Transl. Grano Oy / Multidoc. Museum Centre of Turku, pp 71-73.