Rakennusohje

Rakennusohje

Authors	Matti Hagelberg, Riikka Ala-Harja
Language	Finnish
Publisher	Kustannusliike Hans Nissen (25€)
City	Lahti
Date	2012
Pages	112
Format	15 cm x 20.5 cm
Fabrication	Offset, hardcover
ISBN	978-9-52664-600-8
E-book	PDF (84 mb)

Matti Hagelberg, best known for his dexterity with the scratchboard technique and his ongoing saga Läskimooses, collaborates with writer Riikka Ala-Harja for the making of Rakennusohje. Ala-Harja’s narrative takes place in Normandy and unfolds through a series of disconnected events that can each be described with the conciseness of a title: "The daughter spends the week with her father. The woman visits an American cemetery. A cow gives birth. Eventually the daughter returns home, but she is distant. In the end the two women drive towards Finland. In the end there's a text about Rupert. A parachute mannequin made of cloth which was dropped from the plane during the invasion." Hagelberg's images are inspired by Lego user manuals with their diagrammatic displays that resemble narrative structures in comics grammar. The drawings have a piling effect and their interplay with the text brings in mind what Matthew Kirschenbaum calls rapid shuttling, a reading practice that oscillates between the quantitative display of information and the hermeunetic close reading of the prose.