s. 1969 Pori
The name of my painting is The Vanishing Point. It is constructed into to the dark space of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts’ hallway where the floor and the skew ceiling moves further way from the spectator, towards the horizontal line it creates. The idea of my painting rises from this space. The space where the work is constructed into and the space in the work itself are in interaction with themselves (I’d say each other) and with the viewer.
During my studies in the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts I have done several works which are set to a specific place, like the drawing installation “Henry Darger’s Wife (he never had one)” (2007) in the Drawing Class exhibition in the Kunsthalle Helsinki, the painting installation “Bubblegum Army” (2008) in Showroom X and the painting installation “Spring Fete” (2009) in the Kalevala exhibition in the Ateneum Art Museum. My paintings offer narrative elements without a fixed story. The narration in my paintings can be seen as linear storytelling although the space of the painting is non-linear. The space where I install my painting can be a gallery, a warehouse or a hallway. I use the trompe-l’œil technique in ordinary spaces. In the spaces which depart from the conventional I use their own quirkiness.
The process is capricious and alluring. The sources of the images in my paintings can be found from the Victorian picture books and the animated cartoons of the 1920’s and 1930’s. The images of the popular culture and the typical pastel colours and decorative elements of Rococo both inspire me. The tradition of European painting combined with the illustrative images creates to the painting a state I enjoy. I aspire to represent something the spectator doesn’t remember having forgotten.
