ANSSI JÄÄSKELÄINENDrawings 22.4.2005 – 8.5.2005

None of your business, 2005
oil, crayon and linseed oil on flax on paper
113 x 76 cm

A Retreiver of Images

Anssi Jääskeläinen is an artist whose works combine many elements, some even contradictory. His illustrated figures convey fear, vulnerability, glances from marginality, but also warm-spirited humour, life in the fast lane, sexuality, and a masculinity occasionally manifesting itself as uncertainty. The works are also linked by a kind of anatomical and sensory deficiency in the figures being depicted. Jääskeläinen's subjects may lack hands, or a torso, or their limbs are contorted into anatomically impossible positions. A black blood-like substance impairing vision issues from the nose and eyes. Whether it describes a wounded person's fear or a transformation to or from another plane of existence remains unexplained.

Another characteristic of Anssi Jääskeläinen's works is their particular attention to revealing human details; these include women's names etched into the skin, hands that become accordions, skin covered by black crucifixes. A common thread linking these details is the mechanism of memory, not only the mind's way of remembering, but also the body's recollections and sensory perceptions. Without exception Jääskeläinen's works present only one person at a time, typically pictured against a blank background in a situation where the edges of the white paper insulate the subject from the rest of the world.

Anssi Jääskeläinen's works are created through a process in which real-world experiences are filtered through the artist's memories, imaginary images, dreams, as well as stream of consciousness, and free associations whose inconsistencies defy replication. Owing to these factors Jääskeläinen's works cannot be traced back to the visual observations he has made here and there. It is not a question of portraiture, or representation in general, wherever you look. Jääskeläinen's works do not delineate existing persons; they depict the continuous process of what it means to be human. A person attaches greater significance to evolving emotions - historically as well as during the moment now transpiring - than the forms and expressions, such as the body, in which they occur. In his works Jääskeläinen portrays his thoughts, emotions and knowledge of the human condition by transforming them to images in the truest sense of the word.

Kari Alatalo

 
jaaskelainen/2005/jaaskelainen_1

The sum of the touches, 2005
oil, crayon and linseed oil on flax on paper
113 x 76 cm

jaaskelainen/2005/jaaskelainen_10

Undivided bread, 2005
oil, crayon and linseed oil on flax on paper
113 x 76 cm

jaaskelainen/2005/jaaskelainen_11

A failed attempt at love, 2005
oil, crayon and linseed oil on flax on paper
113 x 76 cm

jaaskelainen/2005/jaaskelainen_12

Untitled, 2005
oil, crayon and linseed oil on flax on paper
113 x 76 cm

jaaskelainen/2005/jaaskelainen_13

North Karelia, 2005
oil, crayon and linseed oil on flax on paper
113 x 76 cm

jaaskelainen/2005/jaaskelainen_14

Until now, 2005
oil, crayon and linseed oil on flax on paper
113 x 76 cm

jaaskelainen/2005/jaaskelainen_15

Landscape from Northern Karelia, 2005
oil, crayon and linseed oil on flax on paper
113 x 76 cm

jaaskelainen/2005/jaaskelainen_16

Improper behavior, 2004
oil, crayon and linseed oil on flax on paper
113 x 76 cm

jaaskelainen/2005/jaaskelainen_2

I hated adolescence, 2005
oil, crayon and linseed oil on flax on paper
113 x 76 cm

jaaskelainen/2005/jaaskelainen_3

Beyond futility, 2005
oil, crayon and linseed oil on flax on paper
113 x 76 cm

jaaskelainen/2005/jaaskelainen_4

Itinerant preacher calling the seas, the forests, 2005
oil, crayon and linseed oil on flax on paper
113 x 76 cm

jaaskelainen/2005/jaaskelainen_5

Man is a graveyard, 2005
oil, crayon and linseed oil on flax on paper
113 x 76 cm

jaaskelainen/2005/jaaskelainen_6

Fragility, 2005
oil, crayon and linseed oil on flax on paper
113 x 76 cm

jaaskelainen/2005/jaaskelainen_7

None of your business, 2005
oil, crayon and linseed oil on flax on paper
113 x 76 cm

jaaskelainen/2005/jaaskelainen_8

Church, 2005
oil, crayon and linseed oil on flax on paper
113 x 76 cm

jaaskelainen/2005/jaaskelainen_9

Leila's and Eino's story, 2005
oil, crayon and linseed oil on flax on paper
113 x 76 cm

 
 
 
 
 
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