Jonge Talent 2007, KABK

Meri has a varied background in the fields of music, theater, dance and visual arts. She has lived and studied in Finland, Iceland, Norway, Ghana, Japan and the Netherlands.

As a singer and a flutist she has performed classical music and jazz, scandinavian, brazilian and african music as well as improvised and noise music. She has been acting in musicals and as a member of experimental performance groups. She has been intensively involved with modern dancers in collaboration both as a musician and a mover.

Lately Meri has been working on a concept she calls 'vocal mosaic', in which she makes collages of her voice in layers, using different vocal techniques, both live and pre-recorded. In her visual work she creates video installations, where her voice and body plays an important part. She is working on combining the different elements to create a specific environment for herself to perform as a vocalist, a mover and a visual artist combined. All the parts can be also used separately, as individual pieces.

Her works are emotinally engaging, making people laugh aloud or get tears in their eyes, feel disgusted or deeply relaxed or touched in any other way. In her opinion art should have a direct impact on the viewer, moving something inside us, opening new passages within.

Meri has recently graduated in June 2007 with her final exam project 'In The Flesh I Reside' (solo performance for a body, voice, video and meat) from The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in the Interfaculty Image and Sound/ArtScience in The Hague, The Netherlands.

Diploma uitreking, Horst Rickels:
"Meri is oorspronkelijk geschoold als zangeres. Daarbij zocht ze het experiment en wel zo extreem dat ze een opleiding nodig had om haar manier van performen te kunnen perfectioneren. In de afgelopen vier jaar heeft Meri niet alleen veelvuldig gewerkt als zangeres, maar ook installaties gebouwd, de laatste tijd steeds gecombineerd met haar eigen films. Daarnaast maakt ze theatrale performances. Twee maanden geleden kwam Meri terug van een studieperiode in Japan. Ervaringen daar kon ze nu inbrengen voor haar examen. We denken dat Meri de bagage heeft gevonden om in alle breedte haar creativiteit in te zetten voor haar performances als experimentele zangeres en bouwer van video-installaties."


http://meri.nikula.interfaculty.nl