JYRKI PARANTAINENBetween Heaven and Earth - Collages and photographs 7.1.2012 – 29.1.2012
My current exhibition, Between Heaven
and Earth, represents a departure from my usual medium of photography. In the
course of my twenty-year artistic career, it has been my habit to cross over between
2D and 3D forms of expression from time to time as a way of keeping my thinking
fresh. It also reflects my desire to work with my hands.
My works mainly address spiritual,
immaterial themes examined through delicate small-scale objects and transparent
materials. I am interested in exploring myths, emotions and the world of ideas
as well as religious issues from a secular point of view. I construct
commentaries on humanity and art, always with at least an undertone of
absurdist humour.
This exhibition consists of small-scale
object installations. My chosen materials include gold, silver, brass,
hardwood, glass, steel and feathers. The design and construction phases opened
up a window into my own past, to a time when I was very much concerned with craftsmanship
and items of this scale. In other words, it represented the re-discovery of a
long-forgotten passion. I draw much of my inspiration from the strategies and
expression of the fluxus network, dadaism and surrealism.
Here, my creative process has been
different. Normally, I would start with a concept and only then progress on to
the practical implementation stage. This time, my focus has been on collecting
objects and materials, tinkering, testing, familiarising myself with what I am
working on. As I have got to know the objects better, I have forged a closer
relationship with some of them, a process that has concluded in a form of
dialogue. Some of the objects have remained more distant and their time will
come later, or perhaps never.
In the course of creating these works,
scale has been essential. Almost my entire career has been spent working with
large-scale photographs, installations and processes. Now it is time for
silence and contemplation. To me, this process has been an exercise in creative
fine-tuning.
Jyrki
Parantainen
Between Heaven and Earth is Jyrki Parantainen´s (b.
1962) second private exhibition at Galleria Heino. Paratainen is known for his
Helsinki Festival exhibition at the Amos Anderson Art Museum in 2006 and his
Tuli - Fire exhibition at the Ateneum Art Museum in 1999.
Parantainen was awarded the Fotofinlandia prize in
1989 and the National Arts Council Suomi prize in 1998.He is currently
Professor of Photography at the Aalto University School of Art and Design.