Adventures in Tampere: Justice and Nature

I arrived early before opening hours at Mältinranta Art Centre. I walked in with the cleaners without realising that I might be imposing. The space was streaked in early spring light and glowed with still moist floors, an early morning hubbub of commotion playing accompaniment to the last drips of a coffee peculator. After initial confusion as to why I was there the lovely worker bees let me in to the gallery to discover the exhibitions and the large paintings of Saija Kivikangas in the main exhibition space and smaller paintings and installation paint giants of Paula Puoskari in the Mältinranta Studio.

Paula Puoskari:  left:Justitia's headstrong daughter  (Justitian omapäinen tytär), 2014, acrylic on law book pages, 305 x 120 cm; right. Justitia’s acolyte Artiksella (Justitian apuri Arktiksella), 2013, acrylic on law book pages, 341 x 115 cm.

On entering Paula Puoskari's exhibition Janus and Justitia, I was arrested by the sight of two  giants. Their limbs dragging on the floor with vacant expressions on two colourful faces looking down at me, curious, judging. The two giants Justitia's headstrong daughter (Justitian omapäinen tytär) and Justitia's acolyte Artiksella (Justitian apuri Arktiksella) are created using acrylic paints on the pages of a law book and sometimes simply the paint itself. They are partially transparent and exude an animalistic quality and ancient knowledge that I found calming.

Paula Puoskari: Headfirst (Päistikkaa), 2013, acrylic and nails, 225 x 70 cm

The other works in the space were primarily paintings excluding another blue acrylic figurine Headfirst (Päistikkaa) that reminded me of drowning. The more traditional paintings in the space were also exciting and provided a good contrast to the more sculptural works, but in the end became more of a living room backdrop for the other works. Pouskari has also worked as a lawyer giving further credence to her use of material and subject matter.

Saija Kivikangas, Nro 030214, 2014, mixed-media on plywood, 244 x 244 cm

In the main gallery Saija Kivikangas and her exhibition, When is it perfect?, dominated the room with conservatively hung and spaced large scale mixed-media paintings on plywood. Her work Nro 030214, immediately reminded me of Peter Doig's Canoe-Lake which I had seen years before at the Saatchi gallery in London. The flowing water alone would have been enough to connect them but the paintings of Kivikangas's although bereft of human figures have a human presence in them that echoes, in my mind, the sense of confusion and loss found in Canoe-Lake.  

Peter Doig, Canoe-Lake. 1997-98, oil on canvas

Her work and the names hinted at snapshots of moments, personal moments mainly of nature but at times the paintings became more architectural in nature as was evident in Nro 010114. All in all the exhibition worked for me, it has left me questioning and wondering, returning to the imagery and creating a platform to view her work. 

Saija Kivikangas, Nro 010114, 2014, mixed-media on plywood, 244 x 366 cm

Exhibition: Studio Mältinranta, 8.-25.3.2014

Paula Puoskari, paintings and giants, Janus and Justia

Exhibition: Gallery Mältinranta, 8.-25.3.2014

Saija Kivikangas, Paintings, When is it perfect?

Taidekeskus Mältinranta 

Mon - Tue 12–18, Fri - Sun 12–16.

Kuninkaankatu 2

33210 Tampere

Finland

Adventures in Tampere: a city of theatre, art and vitality

So I may be a bit biased here, but Tampere is a great little city. (my bias being that I was born here). Known as the Manchester of Finland, because of it's historical background as a factory city, it has grown in the past few years to compete with its British rival in other areas as well.

I caught the morning train from Helsinki and arrived a measly hour and a half later in Tampere. Too early for galleries and museums, but perfectly on time for a morning coffee and homemade Karelian pie at the Sthålberg bakery. Although not the best place in town for breakfast treats, it does have the added bonus of being on the way to my first gallery destination today, as well as, a handy socket to plug my computer in to. It is also a lovely place to plan an attack for viewing art. My time in Tampere is limited, so making a plan that fits around seeing friends and family is a good idea.

The plan and following “articles” will be on three exhibition venues I visited on friday the 21^st of March 2014. Since I am writing a few weeks after my visit some of these exhibitions are no longer available for view, but hopefully you can catch the artists at a new venue some time soon and possibly visit new exhibitions at these venues. I visited the Mältinranta Art Center, Sara Hildén Art Museum and Gallery Rajatila and encountered justice, nature, frailty and an old friend who I was able to view through new eyes.

Travels in Lapland

Last week I travelled to Lapland for a few days and stayed at a place called Kakslauttanen near Saariselkä. It is an interesting place for several reasons: The first being that as a Finnish national I could not find one person who spoke Finnish in the entire establishment, making it one of the oddest multicultural melting pots I have ever visited, particularly since the whole point of visiting Kakslauttanen is to get to know Finnish Lapland.

The second interesting thing about Kakslauttanen was the fact that it is filled to the brim with decorative and at times practical art. Unfortunately the artists who created the works are not so visible, but with a bit of googling I was able to find the reason why all this sculptural work can be found there. It is the Arctic Arts Week that is organised every year at the apex of summer and autumn. Artists from around the world make their way to Kakslauttanen to create new works, as part of this residency like week, the artists are asked to leave their works at Kakslauttanen at the end of their stay. The week is hosted by the owner of Kakslauttanen, Jussi Eiramo, who covers half of the cost of travel for artists and offers free accommodation and food.

KAKSLAUTTANEN, FI-99830 SAARISELKÄ, FINLAND

Saariselkä also had an interesting bit of informative art showcased at a small museum on the upper floor of the Saariselkä Tourist Information centre called Siula. The exhibition is called DestinationNorthernmost Europe and primarily shows factual information about Lapland and its nature. There was also a series of videos being played in an panoramic video auditorium with 7 screens. This was possibly by far the most conceptual construction of nature films I have ever witnessed. It was fantastic!

The problem was that it was not meant as a conceptual view of wildlife and the yearly cycle, but had become one probably due to bad maintenance. I fell in love with it immediately! The screens were in the wrong order, the colours were off and there was an alarming amount of still-life animals pasted onto moving images of Lapland. In short it was a hilarious, slightly dizzying 20 minutes of my life.

Another thing I fell in love with was the explanation texts used for the photographs. My favourite quote in a text was “The artistic abilities of the wind are not too shabby either – blowing sand can accomplish a whole lot.” this was in reference to natural rock formations. Whoever wrote the texts for this exhibition, my hats off to you! You have given me a wonderful new way to discuss nature in terms generally reserved for contemporary art.

Art Around the Clock

Lately I have been running in to a lot of classical, practically Greek or Roman, sculpture and paintings. These are not original artefacts from centuries past and they are not artworks by Neoclassicist or Renaissance artists, these artworks are created by contemporary arts practitioners. 

Li Hongbo “Goddess of the Parthenon”, paper, 45 x 22 x 25 cm, 2013 (Courtesy Klein Sun Gallery, New York. © Li Hongbo)

Probably the most well known artist working in this way currently is Li Hongbo. It is almost impossible not to have run into his expanding paper art objects. Magical objects that contain the happy and joyous extravagance of the origins of the technique best known from chinese paper-lantern decorations where Hongbo's original inspiration is said to have come from. Currently you can see Hongbo's work at the KleinSun Gallery in New York in his exhibition: Tools of Study, which runs until March 2^nd 2014. The sculptures themselves seem very pleasing in the way that having a cool new app on your iPhone is pleasing. 

Klein Sun Gallery

525 West 22nd Street New York

NY 10011

U.S.A.

Phone: (212) 255-4388

Monday through Saturday 10AM – 6PM

Li Hongbo / Tools of Study at Klein Sun Gallery from Colossal on Vimeo.

Another artist that caught my eye this week was Viggo Wallensköld who is currently having a  retrospective exhibition Variations (Variaatioita) at the Hämeenlinna Art Museum 22.2.–4.5.2014. Wallensköld paints figures who are often different, deformed, mutilated or part machine. There is a quality of unabashed loneliness and fragility to his work that is reminiscent of the Romantic Poets of the mid 18^th century. 

Hämeenlinna Art Museum

Viipurintie 213200 Hämeenlinna, Finland
p. (03) 621 3017

Tue-Thu 11-18
Fri-Sun 11-17
Mondays closed

Helsingin Sanomat 22.2.2014

I also went to see a couple of exhibitions this week around and about Helsinki. There is some interesting miniature floating worlds for view currently at Gallery Sculptor by Jouna Karsi: 12.2.-2.3.2014. The sculptures are glances from contemporary culture, with scenes that resemble title sequences of movies. 

Vuoristorata, Jouna Karsi

I also saw the Roberto Pugliese exhibition at MUU Gallery The Space Of A Year. This exhibition consisted of a single installation utilising two video screens and an elevated floor, which viewers could use to create their chosen soundtrack. The exhibition was a lot of fun though visually it felt a bit anticlimactic. Still well worth a visit. The exhibition runs until March 2^nd 2014.

The Space of a Year, Roberto Pugliese

I also went to Gallery G on a whim and I must say that I was surprised by the works of Kimi Pakarinen. In the past I have not been a fan of his paintings, but in this exhibition called Exploring My Realites, and despite the trite title of the exhibition, the paintings are riveting. They are made with colours that should not work and scribble like a teenagers first tagging of a wall and still they come together harmoniously. They remind me of a midlifecrises, there is anger, experience and some questionable decisions.

Kimi Pakarinen: L'Énigme d'un après-midi, 2013, öljy kankaalle, 160 x 200 cm

Imagine

Lets pretend, just for one moment, that this is not just a drawing of a square.

Let us pretend that this square is in fact a box and that this box is in fact the world. 

Not just any old world, but the world of thoughts and ideas.

Imagine that this box contains everything you have ever thought of in your lifetime. Everything you have dreamt in passing, on a long train journey from east to west from north to south. Each moment of weakness and enduring pain. The joys and playful undercurrents of conversations you have had.

IMAGINE

That everything in your mind could fit into this box.

Now imagine that this is not a box, but only a drawing of a square.

Exhibition evaluation: curating _ Waiting For The Summer

LONGING FOR THE SUMMER - A Journey into Naivism
2.11.2013 - 2.2.2014
Curated from the Suomen Gallup Foundation collection by Tapani Pennanen
Tampere Art Museum, Puutarhakatu 34, 33101 Tampere

The Longing For The Summer exhibition at Tampere Art Museum is a curated selection, of naivist paintings spanning over two floors of the museum. Foreign artists are presented in the ground floor gallery and Finnish artists on the upper level gallery. Paintings hang low on the walls emphasising a child's perspective, and the exhibition utilizes coloured and textured walls to accentuate exhibits. Highlighted and enlarged titles of selected artworks are placed randomly within the gallery spaces, they create an intriguing environment that inspires closer viewer examination of artworks.
Interestingly, the curator has used varied elements to accessorise, as well as, conceptualise a link to summer: fake grass, colourful rugs, wooden crates and paper lanterns. While ascending to the second level these elements work to an advantage, the viewer feels the softness of grass beneath their feet and sees text playfully framed by paper lanterns, evoking the feel of a summer garden party. Unfortunately these elements become confusing when combined with the exhibited works. It is questionable if these elements enhance the visitor's experience or only focus attention away from the actual exhibition.

Sunday searches

I've been looking at a lot of net art recently and one of the websites I am thoroughly enjoying is http://art.teleportacia.org run by olia lialina, Russian journalist, film critic and one of the pioneering net.art artists. The thing I love about this website is that along with lots of links to artworks and informative written texts, visiting the page is essentially like looking at the night sky. There is a connection between the Web and nature that I can't quite process but find alluring. She also reminds us that there is a distinct difference between the Internet and the Web.
Her artwork  Online Newspapers, édition française are hypnotising and the Le Monde work, makes me think of stories told around campfires.

Online Newspapers, édition française, Le Monde, Olia LIALINA, février 2013