FREEDOM OF SPEECH In the making 9 sculptures & -sculpture installations. Lindfors’ touring one–man exhibition: Gallery Radar, Kansas City, Missouri 1995, Washington D.C. & L.A., California 1996. Stefan Lindfors 1995. PHOTO: Entire exhibition – Marco Melander. “Demos” & “Ontarkeia” / L.A. 1996 – Markku Lähdesmäki. “Demos” at Sanomatalo, Helsinki, Finland 2001 – Unknown. “Freedom of Speech” was Lindfors' first one–man sculpture exhibition in the United States. The inaugural opening was at Gallery Radar in Kansas City in spring 1995. The show later toured on to the Finnish Embassy in Washington D.C., and to The Brewery in Los Angeles, in 1996. Most of the sculptures are welded steel structures surfaced with clear-resined fiberglass. All works incorporate artificial light; overhead projectors and/or low energy 110V bulbs. Several sculptures use overhead projectors with red-painted dried insects as projected material. The sculptures' names were modified by Lindfors from Greek: Ephemeron x 15 (short-lived insect), Ontarkeia (the authority of being), Demos (the people), Cacaphonia (chaotic sound), Marathon II (long-distance contest), Epikos (the world, the idea, the thought), and Epistheme, Epikrisis and Ethos (knowledge, wisdom, and character). Lindfors’ team in construction in the U.S in 1994–1995 were Timo Pitkänen, Timo Salli, Aino Tirkkonen, Kyle Minor, and Matt Crane. As a result of a strong media response to “Freedom of Speech”, Lindfors received several permanent commissions in New York City as well as gallery exhibitions in other North American cities. Freedom of Speech received critical acclaim in – among other press – Art in America, Sculpture, The Washington Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and LA Weekly. “Freedom of Speech” evolved from the concept of time as a circular repetition. Lindfors reasons that insects' rapid life-cycles serve as profound examples of this idea: “Man cannot eradicate insects – they adapt to anything in an instant. Therefore they have freedom of speech.”...
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