Markus Rissanen 23.10.-9.11. 2003
The Basics of Quantum Biology
My own art seems to connect on some level with contemporary
painters such as Franz Ackermann, Paul Morrison, Takashi Murakami, Lari
Pittman, Matthew Ritchie and Fred Tomaselli. Hierarchical structures, cultural
and scientific notation, repetition, accuracy and precision play a key role
in their work.
I have always been interested in domains which deal with systematic classification
and organisation. My studies in architecture and, later, mathematics provided
me with concrete knowledge of these domains before my interest in creating
art arose. However, at first I consciously and fiercely rejected the influence
of such domains and found the basis for my work from as far away from them
as possible. These issues seemed to be part of a bygone phase that could
no longer have anything to do with my art.
However, at the end of the day, the unexpected seems likely to happen. Thus
my own interest in various scientific disciplines also slowly began to raise
its head again. Simultaneously, my attitude towards a more scientific outlook
changed. Becoming interested in things no longer required professional scientific
work, but could be replaced by an element of surprise and freedom made possible
by art.
The works in the exhibition seem to be based on the use of certain unexpected
connections and parallels. The attitude is a kind of “inquisitive
play”. This can mean play with scientific theories (“quantum
biology”) or play with unusual painting materials (resin paintings).
The works in the exhibition break up and tear apart various theoretical
systems, rebuilding them into new constructions based on a different sense
of reality, logic and borrowed notation.
In my work, I have intentionally refrained from using an individualistic
“painterly” style, using instead a painting technique which
copies scientific, objective representation. This is to say I have wanted
to “model out” of my paintings any painterly quality.
Markus Rissanen
Translation: Käännös-Aazet Oy
For the Surface
Markus
Rissanen paints for the intellect. There is no point in looking for expressive
gestures in his works, since they exist in the domain of research into painterly
two-dimensionality. They create visual associations with a variety of pictorial
worlds, with both art and non-art. Rissanen’s paintings demand a lot
from the viewer, since their surfaceness is bound up with theoretical developments
in painting. Briefly: Rissanen investigates two-dimensionality and the painting
as object. His project seems to be seeking answers to the question: How
do we see? This question also serves as a metaphor for Rissanen’s
project of combining science’s and visual art’s ways of viewing
things. Seeing is both culturally and physiologically determined.
The humorously theoretical approach typical of Rissanen is represented,
for instance, by his “resin paintings”, in which the painting
and the ready-made seem to overlap. In them the support has been covered
with Japanese floral cloth, onto which the artist has painted geometric
shapes or alternatively fixed a paper cloud to the surface. The layer of
resin applied on top of this makes the works strictly two-dimensional. Paradoxically
their smoothness is a reference to layeredness, a layeredness that an abstract
painting that is attempting to achieve two-dimensionality would not want
to accentuate in any way. The Japanese flowers are juxtaposed with a more
geometrical shape, and viewers again find themselves wondering: How is this
decorativeness actually characterised? Is it ironic, jokey or anti-modernist?
The issue becomes even more interesting when we realise that the painting
is becoming more object-like - like a tile.
Rissanen’s visual world seems to have something subtly retro about
it. The artist has in fact taken an interest in 1960s and 70s design. The
earlier paintings attracted attention with their Pop-art quality. But Pop
is only one level. One characteristic of Rissanen’s works is a kind
of play with painterly references and theorisation. This is linked with
his interest in science. He is interested in the ideas in Richard Dawkins’
The Selfish Gene, and especially in the term ‘meme’. The meme
is the basic unit of cultural transmission or copying. Rissanen’s
works contain some brilliant variations: a blue background creates an impression
of depth, while in another otherwise similar work a more neutral colour
celebrates surfaceness. More of a treat, art-historically speaking, is the
way Rissanen plays with quotations from concretism and even hard-edged painting.
He has, for example, occasionally used tape in his painting.
Compared with his earlier works (Thermodynamic Simulation of the Pastilli
Chair, 2000 and A Journey to the Mountains, 2002) neo-Rissanenism at first
seems stark. Gone are the bright primary colours and spatial-illusion-creating
backgrounds. At first glance, the space seems to be constructed out of multiform,
complex painterly spaces. When looking at Rissanen’s works that use
scientific diagrams, in which a Windows Office Assistant-like Mr Observation
occasionally appears, we slowly start to wonder. Could the diagram be multi-dimensional?
How do you illustrate an abstract issue with a diagram? And when does the
diagram start to live its own visual existence? The impression we get is
that his hybridisations of the scientific and aesthetic viewpoint speak
of the importance of a holistic worldview. Thus, we end up in a Renaissance
world, or rather in a pre-modern world, where the ability to process many
kinds of information was more important than narrow specialism. Markus Rissanen
does this consciously and in a non-rigidly programmatic way. In his case,
being programmatic is in fact more a matter of going into things deeply
and of professionalism, rather than a declaration of principles.
Markus Rissanen’s approach to painting is not wrinkle-browed or theoretical,
rather he succeeds in the demanding art of the intellectual romp. Smart
paintings certainly don’t have to be dry. Just the opposite.
Juha-Heikki Tihinen
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A
Journey to the Mountains, 2002 |
Thermal aspect
of quantum biology, 2003
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The basics of
quantum biology, 2003
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Genetic simulation,
2003
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Natural RGB
I, 2003
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Natural RGB
II, 2003
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Even though
he was blue
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The seed of
all five, 2003
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Pattern of production,
2003
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Reading between
genetic lines, 2003
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Haiku, 2003 |
Haiku, 2003
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Experimental
snowflakes, 2003
Enlarge by clicking the image. Press images are available at the gallery. |
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