Gallery

My thoughts on the topics and manner of birth of some of my works:

• Paintings
• Installations and performances
• Environmental art and installations

Installations and performances

Touch of Time - About Theme and Visions "Conversations with Grandma"

I step through the gate of time into a room, in which I meet my two grandmothers, my granny Elizabeth from Vaasa and granny Silju from Viborg. I was given the key to this meeting in the handwork that I found in my mother's attic. They had been saved for one generation in their boxes. It felt almost holy to open those boxes and find in them my grannies' self-made unbelievably fine lace, embroidered and lace dresses, tablecloths and lace ribbons.

My grandmothers never met. Granny Silju was born in Viborg and granny Elizabeth in America whence she emigrated as a child to Bothnia. She died before my parents were married, I never met her, but she lived in my mental images. At my daughter's wedding an few years ago tablecloths made by both grandmothers were on the festive table. It felt as if time were in motion and both my grandmothers were present at the wedding feast.

The meeting of my grandmothers is also present as a thought in my exhibits. The work of their hands is present in each piece of lace, collar and dish. A "lace ribbon" that unites generations is carried forward through me. My works are also an homage to women's work and handicraft over generations.

In my works the mirror and text portray the dialogue between people. In them I often strive to communicate with people, search for a place and moment for meeting. Some small and moving experience or thought can change a moment or the entire life.

In my work “I'll stay with you” (Helsinki, Ruoholahti 1996-97) I set forth from the thought that people who are important for us are always present in our lives when we think of them. The power of feelings and thought surpasses boundaries. We can send them thoughts, messages in the ether without a mobile phone, and reciprocally receive messages from them.

In my work “Communicable” (Gallery Aarni, WeeGee 2001) I continued this dialogue by means of textual plexes hung on the walls in three languages, Finnish, English, and French. In the same space I constructed a memorial plaque out of memo pads, in which the public could write messages and drop them in a post box in the gallery. I got some two hundred messages from visitors to the exhibition.

This dialogue was the starting point of my work “Where are you going” (from the installation “I see voices”, WeeGee 2003) in which I, in a way, forwarded the messages I had got. The work was composed of three parts and featured an interactive part.

I remember from my childhood the question “Which weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of iron?” I learned the correct answer, but in my innermost I disagreed. I went on to investigate this thought in my work “A pound of iron or a pound of feathers” (Art centre Poleeni, 1992), and I am still not quite sure of the answer.

While composing the “Memo book of dreams” (Gallery Otso, 1999) I wrote down immediately upon awakening the dreams I saw during one spring. Out of this flow of conscience of my dreams, I constructed a work in which the dreams pursue their own reality.”