Markku Laakso 29.9.-21.10.2007
The Red Mark
The worlds and motifs depicted in my work often incorporate elements from history and from my own personal life. Along the years, I have come to realise that the colour red, my favourite since childhood, has always been present. It is not always the same red but I know exactly how to mix it for each piece. My red is like an old friend that I am happy to see when I paint. It is the red thread running through my work.
When I was a baby, I had a bright red birthmark on my forehead. I was branded with red at birth. It has been my only favourite colour since the very beginning, and I suspect what first attracted me was its clarity, intensity and aesthetic immediacy. The colour features in many elements that evoke strong emotions in me as a Lapp; sunsets, the northern lights, pitch wood and the turning of the leaves in the autumn, all of them symbolised by the red trim on the traditional Lappish dress. When I was a child, my nose was always quick to bleed. Blood red, in all its starkness, is beautiful.
Red is the colour of attention and has been used to express love, passion and ideology. It is apparently also the most common favourite colour, so I am clearly not alone with my preference. In my paintings, it could be seen as the colour of solidarity. As it is the colour of blood, it also signifies the bloodline; our inheritance, good and bad. In my work, red could also be taken to represent tolerance. No matter who and what we are, we all have red blood running through our veins – if only no one had to shed theirs to prove it.
Markku Laakso
The artist Markku Laakso (b. 1970) was born and grew up in Northern Lapland. At seventeen, he pursued his interest in art at the Liminka School of Arts near Oulu. Around this time, Laakso also held his debut exhibition at the Ivalo public library, making this current exhibition in a sense his twentieth anniversary exhibition.
In an effort to ease his homesickness, Markku Laakso chose to paint Lappish landscapes for his final project at the Turku Art School in 1993. The Lapp boy and Laakso’s long-time idol, the Elvis Presley of the 1970s, his two alter egos, soon emerged in these paintings. Later, the Lapp girl came to join the Lapp boy. These elements now create the contradictory, yet visually and conceptually intriguing assemblage in Laakso’s stage-like paintings, bringing us to contemplate questions of culture and human identity.
Laakso’s new exhibition brings together Elvis, the Lapp boy and Lapp girl and his female nudes, placing them in the shifting seasons of the Finnish national landscape. The works reflect the Lappish way of life and Finnish sauna culture whilst beautifully evoking the national romantic masterworks from the golden era of Finnish art. Put simply, these paintings depict a Lapp boy’s dreams.
Rauli Heino
Lappish Girl and Elvis at Koppelo, 2004 |
Arctic Ecstasy in the Fells, 2006
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Arctic Ecstasy on the Beach, 2006
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Arctic Ecstasy, 2006 |
Arctic Ecstasy by the Shed, 2006
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Arctic Ecstasy by the Fishnet Rack, 2006
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Fallen Tree, Lappish Girl and Elvis, 2007 |
Lappish Girl and Elvis by Tree, 2007
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Lappish Girl and Elvis at Ounasjärvi, 2007
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Lappish Girl and Elvis at Peukalojärvi, 2004 |
Lappish Girl and Elvis at Peukalovaara, 2004 |
Tango on the Beach, 2007 |
Hide and Seek, 2007 |
Something Evil, 2007 |
Elvis rows, 2007 |
On the Edge, 2005 |
Maria Wading, 2007 |
Pauliina at the Bow, 2007 |
Serafina Doing the Rug Wash, 2007 |
Katja and Henriikka Balancing, 2007 |
Rita in the Birch Tree Woods, 2007 |
Sanna with a Big Rock, 2007 |
Annika in Sleeping Bag, 2007 |
Annika in Sleeping Bag, 2007 |
At the Fire, 2007 |
Elina and Anne on a Rock, 2007 |
Sauna, Soup and Trivial Pursuit, 2007 |
A Fair Day, 2007 |
At the Sauna Door, 2007 |
Sauna Day in Spring, 2007 |
On the Way to the Sauna, 2007 |
Sauna-triptych, 2007 |
Swimmer Maria, 2007 |
Sanna with Bucket, 2007 |
Trivial, 2005 |
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