MARKO BACKMANFORCE/COUNTERFORCE 8.1.2021 – 31.1.2021

In my latest exhibition, I have chosen to focus on interiors. I have sought to create a series of peopleless spaces that appear ordinary yet suggestive of an alternative reality. The paintings are created using 3D modelling and the mood is one of expectant, sci-fi film-like foreshadowing, though the key elements and objects on display are all instantly recognisable.

Natural elements, like vegetation, air, gravity, water and light, seem to gradually invade these human-made spaces and the material things they contain. Nature is waiting for an opportune moment to assume control of these deserted rooms.

My landscapes explore similar themes. A flower floating through space breaks through frozen sea ice, while a tree blooms amidst a snowy landscape, glowing with a magenta light. This is not life asserting itself in the lifeless, but a force, unconnected to our familiar natural cycles, suddenly making its presence felt in the landscape. The green light and the withering sun are reminders of the uncontrollable force that we ultimately depend on.

The world of material objects and “things” is a mystery to me. My paintings are an attempt to investigate what happens when these objects and things are placed in an unexpected environment and lit by an unexpected light. My subjects often present themselves to me through mind mapping exercises and through my own imagination. Placed in familiar interior spaces, like an office or a population shelter, these objects begin to create a bizarre, surrealist atmosphere all of their own.

Marko Backman

Marko Backman (b.1977) studied at the Arts Academy in Turku, graduating in 2015 before going on to complete an MA at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki in 2019. Although his works overlap with traditional genres such as landscapes and interiors, they depict a world that is surreally real and yet unreal. In Backman’s works, humans are only present through their absence.