SAMI PARKKINEN Limbo 25.5.2019 – 16.6.2019

Leisure Chair No 1, 2019
from series Limbo
pigmentprint
160 x 123 cm, edition 5 + 2AP
97 x 75 cm, edition 8 + 2AP
28 x 23 cm, edition 10 + 2AP

At our summer house, hidden from reality, in this place that is so cosy and so familiar to us, my mother turns to me. “We are happy, aren’t we?” she asks. “Yes, we are,” comes my response, every time. But am I telling the truth? Are we really happy?

Limbo, the latest series of photographic images created by Sami Parkkinen, is an explora-tion of the way humans perceive happiness. To be in limbo is to find yourself in a liminal state, in a place in-between.We’re in limbo when we’re faced with a choice, grappling with indecision, anxious about our future.

We’re surrounded by bad news. It’s a sign of the times that we’ve learned to find swift so-lutions to our problems. Or, to be more accurate, we’ve figured out how and where to hide from them. Pointlessly buying more and more things and endlessly watching the Netflix seriesmightgive temporary relief from ourselves, but the aftertaste is hollow.

We know that we need to take action if we are to break away from this self-perpetuating cycle of disaster we have brought on ourselves. The to-do list is as long as it is urgent. We must: take better care of our planet, eradicate war, eliminate hunger, reduce our carbon footprint and, above all, love one another more and better.

With a dash of humour and melancholy, Sami Parkkinen’s photographs offer small but in-sightful clues to life’s big questions. The desire to work for the common good should be an in-built human characteristic, but what will it take for all of us to start our own personal revolution? How do we extricate ourselves from the limbo?

At least he tried.

Rasmus Vasli
Gallery Vasli Souza

Sami Parkkinen (born 1974) is a Finnish photographer. He employs photography and sculpture to in-vestigate the human consciousness and the need to rebuild society. Since 2009, he has exhibited at a number of museums and galleries, including the National Portrait Gallery, London in 2015, Circu-lation(s) – Festival de la Jeune Photographie Européenne, Paris in 2016, the Finnish Museum of Photography in 2010 and the National Museum of Finland in 2021.


 
  • parkkinen/2019/arvi_at7_press

    Arvi at 7, 2019
    from the series Father and Son
    pigmentprint
    90 x 67,5 cm, edition 5 + 2AP

  • parkkinen/2019/Black_friday_press

    Black Friday, 2019
    from the series Limbo
    pigmentprint
    205 x 149 cm, edition 5 + 2AP
    130 x 94 cm, edition 8 + 2AP
    22 x 16 cm, edition 10 + 2AP

  • parkkinen/2019/limbo_master_and_slave_1252

    Master & Slave, 2018
    from the series Limbo
    pigmentprint
    160 x 128 cm, edition 5 + 2AP
    97 × 77,5 cm, edition 5 + 2AP
    38,5 x 31 cm, edition 8 + 2AP

  • parkkinen/2019/Raibow_press

    Rainbow, 2019
    from the series Limbo
    pigmentprint
    205 x 148,6 cm, edition 5 + 2AP
    70 x 52,5 cm, edition 10 + 2AP

  • parkkinen/2019/New_departure_press

    New Departure, 2019
    from the series Father and Son
    pigmentprint
    180 x 144 cm, edition 5 + 2AP
    70 x 56 cm, edition 10 + 2AP

  • parkkinen/2019/Sami_parkkinen_limbo_2019_uusi

    Limbo, 2019
    from the series Limbo
    pigmentprint
    126 x 168,5 cm, edition 5 + 2AP
    72 x 97 cm, edition 8 + 2AP
    22 x 17 cm, edition 10 + 2AP

  • parkkinen/2019/Marathon_press

    Marathon, 2019
    from the series Limbo
    pigmentprint
    130 x 173 cm, edition 5 + 2AP
    58 x 43 cm, edition 10 + 2AP

  • parkkinen/2019/The-Driver_press

    The Driver, 2018
    from the series Limbo
    pigmentprint
    97 x 129,5 cm, edition 5 + 2AP
    54 x 72 cm, edition 8 + 2AP
    16,5 x 22 cm, edition 10 + 2AP

  • parkkinen/2019/The_old_and_the_young_press

    The Old and the Young, 2019
    from the series Father and Son
    pigmentprint
    160 x 120 cm, editio 5 + 2AP
    75 x 56,2 cm, editio 10 + 2AP

  • parkkinen/2019/tres_enerve_press

    Très énervé, 2017
    From the series Limbo
    pigmentprint
    97 x 72 cm, edition 5 + 2AP
    50 x 38 cm, edition 8 + 2AP
    28 x 23 cm, edition 10 + 2AP

  • parkkinen/2019/Torch_press

    Torch, 2019
    from the series Limbo
    pigmentprint
    160 x 120 cm, edition 5 + 2AP
    97 x 73 cm, edition 8 + 2AP
    30 x 22,5 cm, edition 10 + 2AP

 
 
 
 
 
top