Anssi Jääskeläinen 2.8. - 24.8. 2008Lately, I have noticed my work becoming more simple, pared down. I find it hard to explain it, it is dictated by it’s own logic.
My drawings stem from everyday observations, occurrences, meetings. I see life as a sum of small details and small gestures. Something of this is then distilled into images. Something that seems important and yet is difficult to pin down.
Personally, I am not particularly sociable by nature but like everyone, I need a community around me to grow, to work and to develop. Other people, their thoughts and actions are always at the very core of my thinking and my feeling.
That is why people are the subject of my drawings. They are not portraits, however. I am not trying portray just any one individual but rather to say something of the world they live in, the reality that surrounds them.
To me, it is important to question, to be curious, to retain a sense of wonderment. That is why my works often contain elements that are unexplained and foreign, even to me. My work is motivated by sheer inquisitiveness and a rejection of ready-made world views.
Anssi Jääskeläinen
Butterfly, 2008
Dress Rehearsal, 2008
Conflicting Assumptions, 2006
Royal Boy, 2007
Pouring Her Heart Out, 2008
Light, 2007
Lunch hour, 2007
All the works: 113 x 76 cm, oil, crayon, linseed oil on flax on paper
Enlarge by clicking the image. Press images are available at the gallery.