PETRI HYTÖNENHuman fountain 9.2.2019 – 10.3.2019

Carusel, 2018
from series Those closest to earth
watercolour and metal leaf on paper
110 x 140 cm

A 55-year-old man pauses to reflect on the fragments of reality he has conjured up, the inspiration behind his paintings, the reasons they were created and the impact they have had. What follows is the realisation that they are, increasingly, preoccupied with the process of accepting a series of different realities whilst enjoying the remnants of the sensual world that still remain.

In Gold-plated empathies, I have painted things that I like, love or care about or things that I feel sympathy for. They are rather bold, naive, immediate reactions and impulses that I have wanted to paint and then cover with gold plate surface all the pointless misleading hubbub surrounding them. In this era of glass, wood and metal, the warm gleam of gold and the gold frames prompt a strange longing for nostalgia and elevate my Gold-plated empathies to almost objects of worship. Gold-plated empathies constitute a deranged pursuit of my own urges and desires but also reflect something broader about our world right here, right now, both today and yesterday, as observed by one 55-year-old man.

For my luck, the list of the things I like and care about is pretty much endless. Well, for example, I like my own sweetheart, a homeless family sleeping on a mattress cover on the street in the middle of busy Parisian evening, chatting with acquaintances, funny looking catering van, Cycladic icons, a pigeon couple side by side watching the world go by, the one in the confessional sharing secrets with the priest, comradeship, my own golden cage, friendship between old ladies, person’s longing for other person, wonderful dawn sky, pets, honesty to the point of stupidity, direct gazes, men-only stuff, artworks, parties, joking, ski tracks, forests full of mushrooms, roaming, fresh spring water that awakens my body, saunas and plump blueberries. And all the wonderful things that leave us feeling warm inside. Oh, there are so many of these golden things.

Longing for the shores is a series of photographs to which I have painted on, with watercolours, images that I think they needed. They convey a longing for new adventure and for connections between different worlds and that tingling feeling created by the possibility of change.

In paintings from the series Those closest to earth I search for the spiritual behind the material. Like that moment on the hilltop in Porvoo when the heaven seems to open, revealing a gorgeous infinity and making me think about the more universal and more distant things while I paint only my own emotions, thoughts and maybe remote renderings of the reality we inhabit. I feel like I’am the guard dog of the galaxy, stationed at the door of an eight square meter bijou jewellers on a tiny lane in Rome.

Pompeii dialogue is based on my strange love for Roman art. At Villa Lante. I have taken black-and-white photographs of Pompeii paintings from the Pompeii Encyclopaedia. On those black-and-white pigment prints I have painted with colours my own contemporary commentaries. The dilapidated wall, its every crack and mark, transport me away to a space-like adventure. The two-millennia old paintings shape my consciousness, taking me from here towards another world and so the Pompeii dialogue begins. As I work on my computer, with the super speed of time travel, the rapidness of modern technology meets with the slowness of my brush being as addictive as anything HBO or Netflix can offer.

I have created these paintings as a sign of the love and respect I feel for my colleagues from the past and the paintings buried under layers of volcanic ash. Ooh. The power of nature spoke to them directly. Will it speak to us too? To us with our addictive artificial realities, our man-made climate change and our war and conflict. The optimists are continuing to conjure positive visions for the future, while others have their doubts…

Petri Hytönen, in Porvoo, 10 January 2019

 
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    Heavenly bar, 2018
    from series Those closest to earth
    watecolour and collage on paper
    98,5 x 152 cm

  • hytonen/2019/IMG_5273-kopio

    Encounter, 2018
    from series Those closest to earth
    watecolour and collage on paper
    102 x 151,5 cm

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    I can smell history, 2018
    from series Those closest to earth
    watercolour on paper
    139 x 198 cm

  • hytonen/2019/IMG_5261-kopio

    Deep blue, 2018
    from series Those closest to earth
    watecolour on paper
    140 x 200 cm

  • hytonen/2019/IMG_5230-kopio

    From spotlight to shade, 2018
    from series Those closest to earth
    watercolour and collage on paper
    70 x 152,5 cm

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    A girl from sky, 2018
    from series Those closest to earth
    watecolour and collage on paper
    35 x 74 cm

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    Jogging, 2017
    from series Those closest to earth
    watecolour and collage on paper
    29 x 75,5 cm

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    Gate, 2018
    from series Those closest to earth
    watercolour on paper
    70 x 140 cm

  • hytonen/2019/IMG_5162

    Back to Society, 2019
    from series Those closest to earth
    watercolour and collage on canvas
    300 x 270 cm

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    In sleep, 2018
    from series Those closest to earth
    watecolour, leaf-metal and collage on paper
    100 x 140 cm

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    Dawn, 2017
    from series Those closest to earth
    watecolour on paper
    69,5 x 140 cm

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    Small universe, 2018
    from series Those closest to earth
    watecolour on paper
    108,5 x 140 cm

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    Human fountain, 2017
    from series Those closest to earth
    watecolour and collage on paper
    99,5 x 152,5 cm

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    From series Those closest to earth, 2019
    Installation view

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    From series Those closest to earth, 2019
    installation view

  • hytonen/2019/IMG_5148-kopio

    Checked beach, 2017
    from series Longing for the shores
    watercolour on pigment ink print
    105 x 154 cm

  • hytonen/2019/IMG_5146-kopio

    A moment on the beach, 2018
    from series Longing for the shores
    watercolour on pigment ink print
    105 x 155,5 cm

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    From series Longing for the shores, 2016-2019
    watercolour on pigment ink print
    á 41,5 x 59 cm

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    Fading Ladders, 2018
    from series Longing for the shores
    watercolour on pigment ink print
    112 x 160 cm

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    The Golden Ladders, 2018
    from series Longing for the shores
    metal-leaf on pigment ink print
    112 x 152,5 cm

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    Installation view, 2019

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    Human Kindness, 2018
    from series Pompeii dialog
    watercolour on pigment ink print
    111,5 x 151 cm

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    I ♥..., 2018
    from series Pompeii dialog
    watercolour on pigment ink print
    29,5 x 42 cm

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    Drink, 2018
    from series Pompeii dialog
    watercolour on pigment ink print
    70 x 50 cm

  • hytonen/2019/IMG_5188-kopio

    Mmmmm, 2018
    from series Pompeii dialog
    watercolour on pigment ink print
    42 x 29,5 cm

  • hytonen/2019/IMG_5182-kopio

    Laundry, 2018
    from series Pompeii dialog
    watercolour on pigment ink print
    50 x 70 cm

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    Icarus and portal, 2018
    from series Pompeii dialog
    watercolour on pigmnet ink print
    151 x 106,5 cm

  • hytonen/2019/IMG_5178-kopio

    Male Group Therapy Topics 1, 2, 3, 2017
    from series Pompeii dialog
    watercolour on pigment print
    50 x 70 cm

  • hytonen/2019/IMG_5186-kopio

    Me too!, 2018
    from series Pompeii dialog
    watercolour on pigment ink print
    29,5 x 42 cm

  • hytonen/2019/IMG_5173-kopio

    Feminist march in Pompeii, 2019
    from series Pompeii dialog
    watercolour and collage on pigment ink print
    111 x 151 cm

  • hytonen/2019/IMG_5207-kopio

    Mecenate, 2018
    from series Pompeii dialog
    watercolour on pigment ink print
    70 x 50 cm

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    From series Pompeii dialog, 2019
    Installation view

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    From series Gold-plated empathies, 2019

  • hytonen/2019/IMG_5318

    From series Gold-plated empathies, 2019

  • hytonen/2019/IMG_5310

    From series Gold-plated empathies, 2019
    Installation view

  • hytonen/2019/petri_hytonen_vi-cassia_vulcin_halki_2018_1252---Copy

    Down Via Cassia Vulci, 2018
    from series Gold-plated empathies
    watercolour and metal leaf on paper, golden frame
    56 x 66 cm

 
 
 
 
 
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