Tykylevits – The Absurdist Video Aritst from Finland

With the rise of easy-to-use video technology, many crossovers of artists into the world of video art have emerged. Most catch randomly on video without rhyme or reason; technology is a button away and they will play for the sake of play. For most, it turns out that it doesn’t work as “art.”

But others really discover their true voice through video, even after years of being in a different discipline.

Such is the case with the absurd video artist known by his online channel name “Tykylevits.”

Hailing from Finland, and originally known for his art sculptures, Tykylevits appeared to have stumbled upon the video by accident some recent years ago, while sitting at a kitchen table repeatedly banging his head against a newspaper. His wife recorded the video, and after a friend saw it the next day, he was urged to post the article online.

From there, the camera would eventually drift away from the kitchen table, revealing a world of strange art and lifestyle. It was perfect for visual capture through video medium.

From the funky art sculpted farmhouse to Finland itself, the decorated pieces were there. The extreme change in the environment; beautiful bitter Finnish winters, warm and relaxing Finnish summers, and the costume changes and Tykylevits antics that reflect both (from long strokes in the snow to brief bikini sets in the summer swamps).

Add in a group of fishnet stockings with women posing for the camera, performing absurd actions and you have an interesting snapshot of life that would be difficult to depict any other way than through video.

His video art talks about the feminist struggles of labeling (Suomalainen sisu-kas nainen, 2007, seen more than 240,000 times), the man as a cold and lonely potato (Jaakaappi, 2008), the culture and the nonsense of smoking (Stop Smoking, 2009) and the absurdity of the fetish, while several videos show women putting on and taking off their nylons in a repetitive manner that lures the spanker into submission or blunts him into awareness.

Prolific and absurd video artists like Tykylevits are often too powerful for the traditional media of video art or cinematography. By the time this article is read, you will have uploaded over 1000 videos. These archaic and nostalgic mediums, such as alternative film screenings, art galleries and festivals, cannot keep up, they don’t know where to start, what to do or how to represent the powers that have emerged online in the last decade. (So ​​it is much easier to do a retrospective of already defined works by artists that have already been tagged).

And many times these untagged outsiders will also be drowned out by the viral noise of online videos. But thankfully, Tykylevits’ absurd video art has emerged above the rest, and his effective voice for expression sheds new pieces almost daily.