The Stroker, 2018
video still, video installation, 14:25 min
Courtesy of Helsinki Contemporary and Carlos/Ishikawa 

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The Stroker (2017) is a series of videos by PILVI TAKALA that were filmed at Second Home, a trendy co-working space in London, where TAKALA staged a two-week-long intervention in 2017.

PILVI TAKALA posed as a hired wellness consultant named Nina Nieminen. According to her cover story her company, Personnel Touch, was hired to provide touching services to enhance the workers’ mood, confidence and productivity.

The work shows the various responses of the ‘touchees’. The situation gets the office talking. Workers gossip amongst themselves, visibly bonding over a common confusion – Nina was nicknamed “The Stroker”.

The Stroker (2018) is part of the six video works by PILVI TAKALA that are on view at Kiasma, Helsinki until February 17, 2019.