On the Border of Existence, Gallery Nykyaika, Tampere.
Solo exhibition in August 2016
“For several years now, I have been photographing near allotments. Those places are kind of the core of the whole system we are living in, in a small scale of course. I see the allotments as a part of a bigger picture: us people trying to solve the mystery of life by growing things, or at least trying to grow things and especially expecting things to grow. When everything is in the internet or in the social media and functioning almost totally in virtual world, it’s almost quite rebellious to try to grow things by yourself. And still it’s very current problem to solve for us: how to feed the people in the globe now and in the future. Somehow I feel that our survival is on the edge. Or at least our the coming generation’s survival. Are we going to loose it?
I am interested in the code that is in the plants and seeds. It makes the rebirth possible every time again and again. But what if the rebirth does not happen? The menacing image of global warming, melting of the arctic glaciers, over exploitation of natural resources, genetic manipulation of crop and plants, feeding the mankind at the expense of the environment, the growing pollution of industry and the forcing climate change are things that I think about in my everyday life. Somehow I feel the need to photograph and visualize by my photography works or by installations, that this, our life as we know it now, is not going to last.
In Gallery Nykyaika in Tampere, I build my exhibition into a cellar. No windows, no sunlight. Maybe the disaster had already happen, and the most important thing to do was to solve the problem: how do we grow things now? How do we and the human kind survive this? Is there any life after the self-inflicted destruction?”
The artist and the exhibition is supported by:
The Finnish Cultural Foundation and Espoo City
(Click the images for right and larger size)
