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Signals
15 January - 14 March 2009
A signal can be a message from one person to another,
through sound, language or light. Our environment is full
of signs, of which we are both conscious and unconscious
of. They surround us where ever we go; warn us, direct us,
assure and inform us about what is happening around us.
We can interpret signs without reflecting over them. They
are part of our everyday, our means of communication in
the world, whether in the city or in nature.
Visual art is a way of signalling. Contemporary applied art
is a part of the visual culture and part of the tradition of
form. Applied art in Finland lives on the boundaries
between design and art and is living through a process of
change.
The exhibition "Signals" features works by applied artists
whose critical and independent choices in different
disciplines communicate the direction of contemporary
applied art in Finland today.
The initiative for the exhibition was taken by Artists O,
an association founded in 2006 by Finnish professional
artists working in the field of applied arts, part of The
Finnish Association of Designers Ornamo. The Embassy
of Finland in London is also supporting this project.
Kaija Poijula's installations are inspired by the verses of
the Finnish poet Pentti Saarikoski: "I am not interested in the World and its places. I am
interested in places and their Worlds." Her work
discusses the themes of life and death, rites of passage,
joy and sorrow; the human condition
and rituals in our everyday lives. Morning
dew, maiden snow, mist - quiet and
beautiful moments that we notice only
just when they are gone.
Saana Murtti explores and investigates
the relationship of familiar objects to the
human figure in her ceramic sculptures.
She looks at multiplicity, variations and
metamorphosis of these objects. They
intentionally work as a metaphor for the
human body; the shoe frequently appears in her work. It is like an ´outer skin´,
in which the physical existence
becomes visible.
Nina Nisonen's wool paintings
are mainly figurative and concern
themselves with the
representation of a monkey-like
figure which reflects the artist's
feelings of anger, melancholy,
playfulness or humour. The
painterly wool hangings comprise
of several layers of felted surfaces combined with gauzy linen.
Aino Kajaniemi weaves tapestries which are graphic like small
line-drawings." I like drawing, black lines on white, white lines on
black and the tones between them. - I like rough and smooth
materials, disagreement and discussion between them."
Kristina Riska says of her work,"There always has to be a reason, an
impulse, which makes you create a work of art. My own works are
my inner images that I give form to."
"Architecture means a lot to me. Also history and environment
bring interesting views to art - especially how people leave their
marks to them."
Kati Tuominen-Niittylä's work is about being in harmony with her
materials: colour and form, quick almost sketchy movements,
ceramic traditions exploring both the new and the timeles. Her
vessels make a reference to the rural traditions of Finland and to
ancient vessel forms yet clearly belong to a contemporary Western
culture.
Tiia Matikainen, in her ceramic work, deals with organic forms
and aesthetics of ugliness. "My work takes inspiration from forms
such as a cauliflower or wrinkles of the human body. In my forms
you can see a sample of the microscopic world, vegetation, a
tumour, landscape, rocks or cloud formations".
Renáta Jakowleff is fascinated by the alchemy of glass, her
material. As glass cools down, its plasticity is irreversibly
consigned to history. The kinetic properties of the liquid phase
disappear and, often, only someone familiar with the glassmaking
process would be able to infer the previous lively
motion from the shape or structure of the set glass objects. "My ideas evolve through thinking about how hot glass
behaves. I try to imagine how glass would react and signal
in a given situation, to put myself in its place, or to imagine how
a situation should be altered so as to get the glass to behave in
a different manner".
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