Galleri Nef warmly welcomes you to Power Play, a solo show with Finnish artist Jade Kallio,
their first in Sweden. In the exhibition, the artist poetically explores the ecosystem and
architecture of public restrooms, as spaces for representation and enactment of gender and
sexuality, social encounters, solidarity, masculine aggression, as well as euphoria, and the
symbolism of bodily vulnerability from a trans person’s perspective.
To book an appointment for a private visit when the gallery is closed, or for more information on
accessibility, please contact us at info@gallerinef.com.
“For some reason, in public men's rooms, I often find myself drawn into a power play, where rules are
written in the thick air, which often sends my mind spiraling into a dissociative state—unwilling to
surrender to the choreography between men, avoiding gazes, hiding my true self in a performance I've
already spent decades unlearning. I used to blame myself for going too far, for overthinking again, but
these days I'm just too self-conscious of how some structures and spaces try to impose meaning on one's
body and gender against consent.
Alongside the bodily needs, the exhibition is about gender, hopes, and dreams that feel more real than the
reality around us, set against the sordid discourse of power politics, which seeks to seep deep into the
structures of the human psyche and maintain gender control over the individual.”
— Jade Kallio
Public toilets were formally introduced by a sanitary engineer at The Great Exhibition of 1851 in
London. Branded as “monkey closets” or “retiring rooms” they established separate amenities
for women and men, the first flush toilet facilities to implement sex-segregation to this basic
need. Public toilets have long been a fixture in society; brick and stone benches lined with holes
acted as communal latrines in the Indus Valley Civilization and Ancient Rome. Divisions
between individuals and groups, female and male were not explicit.
The design of public bathrooms has changed over the years, reflecting society’s shifting
priorities concerning sanitation, efficiency, safety, and comfort, while also revealing the spatial
arrangement of social relations. Public bathrooms are structured by social norms around
gender, sexuality, and embodiment. They are not practical, neutral spaces but deeply normative
ones that regulate bodies and enforce a specific social order. The disorientation felt by queer
individuals in these spaces reinforces how the built environment shapes and limits experiences
of identity and belonging.
Through film, installation, and performance, Kallio merges fictional and non-fictional narratives
where masculinity ‑ in its most performative sense ‑ seems to amplify, blending tension and
hyper-awareness. A yearning for comfort manifests through dialogue with Duchamp’s female
alter-ego Rrose Sélavy, and through Kolya’s tender connection with Lana Del Rey’s world of
lyrics in Ocean Blvd; finding shelter in feminine gestures from art history and pop culture.
Juggling humour and melancholy, Power Play displays the complex reality of being oneself
while executing the most mundane gesture, in what should be the most banal setting.
Jade Kallio is a Helsinki-based filmmaker and artist. They work in experimental film,
performance and visual arts. Kallio is interested in the meanings attached to gender and the
body and the spaces that produce them.
Kallio has exhibited and screened their works internationally at festivals and institutions such as
Stockholm Cinema Queer (2024), Titanik Gallery, Turku (2024), LOU Gallery, Helsinki (2024),
SIC gallery, Helsinki (2024), Forum box/ Mediabox, Helsinki (2023), Lunga Art Festival, Island
(2023), Tampere Film Festival (2022), Kassel Dokfest (2021), European Media Art Festival,
Osnabrück (2017, 2019, recipient of the EMAF main award in 2019), International Film Festival
Rotterdam (2017, 2019, CCA Derry - Londonderry (2016), Helsinki Art Museum (2017), Turku
Art Museum (2017), Gallery Sinne, Helsinki (2017, 2022), International Short Film Festival
Winterthur Switzerland (2017), TBA21, Wien (2017)
The exhibition is curated by Lucie Gottlieb and Lauren Johnson. With the support of Kulturfonden för Sverige och Finland.
Image: video still from the video Toilet (2024) by Jade Kallio
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