PASI TAMMIPaintings 2.9.2005 – 25.9.2005

Double Exposures from the Borders of Realities

In the latest works of Pasi Tammi, people have left the stage leaving behind hints of their existence: apples left uneaten, abandoned objects and dimly lit rooms reigned by shadows. The dreamlike pictures and their tense atmosphere take place in moments open to endless narrative possibilities. The recurring themes, candles and a chair adventuring alone create stories between pictures.

These works, more simplified than the previous ones, yet still picturesque, give imagination wings. Existentialist questions arise from beneath the aesthetic surface: What lies beyond the borders of realities? What is the relationship between the persistence of a memory and life lived? Does a person´s identity match the way it is seen by others? Rich shadows and reflections create a kind of double exposure to the pictures as different levels of time, external reality and internal experience become intertwined.

The play between overlapping realities strengthens the surrealistic tone of Tammi´s paintings. Surrealism, however, is nothing but one layer combined as it is with reminiscences of art from various eras - from the fiery floods of Medieval damnation to the Romantic sublimation of nature and from the mystical states of mind associated with Symbolism to the mirrors, fading flowers, and decaying fruit of the "vanitas" theme. As a painter, Tammi successfully integrates a unique approach to timeless fantasy art traditions.

Sari Kuuva
Art Historian