Love

 Group exhibition, Kuopio Art Museum / Ars Libera,
curated by Juha-Heikki Tihinen, 1 June - 2 September 2012

Space of Love, 2012. Adaptable spatial artwork. Print image and photo stickers and Indian ink on acrylic, lamination, wooden bars. In the background Collected Falls (part), 2011-2012.

Collected Falls 9, 2012. Print images, photos and Indian ink, printed on Hahnemühle paper.
Image included also in Space of Love.

Collected Falls 5, 2012. Print images, photos and Indian ink, printed on Hahnemühle paper.
Image included also in Space of Love.

Photos Hannu Miettinen

Space of Love and Collected Falls

Biblical stories of paradise and The Fall have interested me since my very youth. For about a decade I have collected old and new images on these themes and used them as a starting point in many of my works.

Although The Fall is a serious matter, medieval and early renaissance Paradise scenes often have a comical overtone that attracts me. Both unknown artists and big names like Dürer, Cranach and Bosch have visualized the legend and images have remained alive. Even that small ape guzzling a fruit at the bottom of a medieval drawing – and the same ape in the illustration of the early Finnish bible Coco Pyhä Ramattu Suomexi (1642). These intriguing images and all that are a source of inspiration to me.

Innocence was lost in The Fall and genitals had to be covered by leaves. You were not to pick fruits any more, neither apples nor figs from the trees of paradise. You had to start drudging with your brow in sweat for your fruits and to bear new people with pain and ache. Now these offspring do not distinguish good from bad but lust for everything attractive to themselves, leaving nothing to their pals…

In my Love works I have used art historical print images, Indian ink, and my own photos of the Flower Aquarium and Cape flowers (Cape Floral Kingdom) in a collage-like way.

Space of Love is an adaptable spatial artwork,
can be assembled into a hexagonal space that can be entered (picture),
a triptych-like screen or e.g. a zigzag.
The panels measure about 190 x 110 cm,
the frames are made of pine bar treated with chestnut-toned stain.

Collected Falls is a series of
collage-like potpourris inkjet-printed on Hahnemühle paper.
Size without frames about 30 x 20 cm.