Jyrki Parantainen 25.10. - 16.11. 2008
Horisontti
The line where land, water and sky meet is where our perspective ends, it is as far as the eye can hope to see. Beyond it lies a space where the imagination reigns. The horizon is not just a visual convergence of the three elements but a conceptual interface, the beginning of an ever-expanding continuum of dreams and promises.
Beyond the horizon is always a place, a space, a land that is home to an infinity of realities. Humans have always needed to believe that beyond their everyday experience is something better, something worth striving for. Beyond the horizon lies our hope for a better future. The horizon has served as a motivation, a force to take us onwards and forwards. Even when the world was thought to be flat, man sailed towards the precipice in defiance of whatever ruin might lie ahead.
For me the horizon is more than just a sum of shapes, colour and light. Behind it is the universe in all its manifestations: grief, longing, dreams, world politics, environmental disasters and violence. Emptiness, vastness, the past, the present, the future. This limit of what is visible to the eye is a huge source of fascination for me because, as an artist, it leaves me free to continue and mould the world beyond it as I see fit. The horizon and landscapes are a canvas permanently open to interpretation.
The works in this exhibition are a series of landscapes, where the union between word and image plays a significant role. A sense of craftsmanship was key to the creative process. I don’t manipulate my photographs digitally. Instead, I work by taking the initial image and printing a proof to which I add three dimensional elements, such as metal thread, needles and lettering. I then photograph the collage to create the final version. The long process is designed to forge the photograph towards a painterly aesthetic and logic. The end product is not intended as a realistic and neutral, documentary-style reproduction of the landscape’s colours. Rather, the idea is to subject them to “errors” and imperfections.
Words and sentences inscribed on the images add new levels of meaning. They might politicise or poeticise. I use the words to forge a new identity for the landscape as I have observed and experienced it.
Jyrki Parantainen
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3 Million Years, 2008 |
Under China Clouds, 2008 80 cm x 300 cm |
Untitled, 2008 |
Divine Comedy (Mullholland Drive), 2008 80 cm x 300 cm |
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Eternity and Day, 2008 |
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Everything Is So Fine, 2008 125 cm x 320 cm
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Dead Centre, 2008 107 cm x 300 cm
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