Anish Kapoor, Gulliver in the world of Lilliputians

My one second one picture moment with Anish Kapoor.

Photo © Paula Hietaranta

  You are in a womb waiting. It is painfully hot, wet, dark red there. You lose the sense of time and space. Out, out quickly! Suddenly the rays of sunshine pierce the thick round walls – and a moment later you are born to a world of fresh air, light and human voices.

This was my first impression of Leviathan by Anish Kapoor. But what happened afterwards was even more astonishing – it created in my mind a whole process about art and life. Is that the definition of good art - the process it lives in you afterwards, feeds you, questions you?

When the Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor was invited to create an oeuvre to Monumenta 2011 to the Nave of Grand Palais in Paris, he wanted to make something gigantic to a gigantic space. It took nine months, the time of human pregnancy, to think and build this unique work he named as Leviathan, the biblical monster.

And believe me - it is not just a material piece. There you have an unique possibility to go to the very essence of being.

Momenta 2011 is open until 23rd of June. If you cannot go there, go at least to this internet page to hear the artist to explain his work:

http://www.monumenta.com/fr/2011/medias/view/27/rencontre-anish-kapoor-et-jean-de-loisy

 

Tapani Kokko, our man in Paris

A part of the sculpture Les hommes meurent en premier, 2010.

 

When going to Mr. Kokko´s exhibition be prepared to meet a world full of emotions, fears, life and death.

It has been said that men cannot give birth, but this does not apply to Tapani Kokko.

If you ever contemplated what it is to be a man, a woman, a liar, a princess or a mortal, kissed by the death, this wooden explosion of rough chain saw forms and bold colours gives answers to them all.

At the opening night the artist was gleaming with happiness. He had been working two years with this exhibition, and here it was.

”Now I am ready to conquer the world”, he said.

And instead of the long formal speeches he decided to open the exhibition on his own way.

”The ship is usually christened by smashing a bottle of champange to her deck. I will open this exhibition with a handprint of tar.”

And so he did.

The exhibition Les Hommes meurent en premier is open until 1.7.2011 at Institut Finlandais, 60 rue des Écoles, 75005 Paris. Open Tu 12-20, Wed-Sat 12-18.

Visit Finland, learn to fly

It was a surprise to meet a Finnish-American photographer Arno Rafael Minkkinen deep under ground in Paris. At metro stations are now huge b/w photos by and of Arno with a tiny text: 187.888 LACS, 179.584 ÎLES.

187 888 lakes, 179 584 islands??? Who did count them?

The pictures are part of a new Visit Finland advertising campaign you see in France and Germany this spring. The idea is of course to seduce people to visit Finland, but I did not get the message - Arno´s amazing, true, utterly personal pictures certainly differ from the usual semi-sweet tourist photos but they do not look very inviting.

Of course they give you the idea that in Finland you may meet naked artists on lonely lakesides, but is it enough? I promise you that Finland is much more – just come and find out yourself!

By the way, if you want to see more pictures by Arno go to his new website arno-rafael-minkkinen.com

And if you want to know more about Finland and how it really looks go to

www.visitfinland.com

Karita, our own celebrity designer

To Karita´s sketchbook is glued a piece of kitchen towel – 

it happened to be the only paper available when the inspiration struck. 

Well, there are celebrity designers and celebrities who just tell what they like and then the designers redesign their ideas. You did not really believe that Madonna designed her H&M collection? Even Kate Moss bag collection for Longchamp, I have been told, has better versions of her own vintage bags.

OK, I think that they don´t even pretend to be designers, they just sell their selling power. 
But now we have in Finland a celebrity designer of our own - Karita Tykkä, fashion model and Miss Finland 1997, known for her beauty and self-discipline, has designed her first jewellery pieces for the Finnish manufacturer Oy Tillander Ab.
The nicest thing in her first collection is the mother-child pendant Luca, named after her baby son. It consists of two intertwined golden flat rings you cannot separate, a symbol of the bond of maternity.
When Karita tells about her ideas, willingness to learn more and visits to the Tillander workshops her eyes are sparkling like – yes, diamonds. There is certainly more to come.

To find out more about the jewellery collections hand-made in Finland look at

http://www.tillander.fi/

All you need is love

 Janne Laine & Outi Heiskanen: Lapsenvahdit, 2011.

Sometimes it is inevitable – you just cannot help falling in love.

I fell in love last Tuesday in Galleria Duetto in the graphic art exhibition by Janne Laine and Outi Heiskanen. The combination of Icelandic landscape photography, weird creatures and sense of humour struck like a lightning. Their work tells so much more than it shows.

This Babysitters (Lapsenvahdit) was my favorite. Who are they and who am I? Am I the trusted one, responsible? Or am I the one sitting there, a bit frightened? Which part in me are they watching? And why?

Galleria Duetto, Kalevankatu 15, Helsinki. This exhibition is open until 29th April, Tu-Fr 11-17, Sa-Su 12-16.

If you want to know more about the artists, go to

http://www.galleriat.net/taiteilijat.asp

http://www.jannelaine.com/

  

Beauty for Sale

I have found out that I have readers all around the world, so this blogging is specially to you, my foreign friends! And of course also to you, my Finnish friends!

I know you are interested in art and in beauty, so that´s why I want to introduce to you the flowers which stay fresh forever.

They are the works by six brilliant Finnish photographers. Almost all of these are members of the Union of Artist Photographers in Finland. You can contact them directly or via galleries if you want to buy their work.

These are my personal favorites at the moment. Some are new, some are a few years old. There is something human in those pictures – or is it only human to see soul in nature?

Iiu Susiraja

Iiu Susiraja is an earthquake in the Finnish new photography. Young lady, big ideas. Literally big. And then those honest moments, sweet and humble. I love this picture.

 Kun kosken kukkiin/When I touch the flowers

http://www.iiususiraja.com/

iiu@iiususiraja.com

Sakari Viika

is known for his impressive dance photographs he takes for the Finnish National Ballet. This picture is something different. It does not jump, but there is the rhythm and the movement. And the power of the nature.

sakari@sakariviika.com

or call: +358 (0)400 449 532

Saara Ekström

This is her flower picture from the year 2001 from the series Nursery.  To me it shows dark, heavy mystery of life, but there is also a hope in it. Sickness of a flower. It is tenderly treated by a child, but is it really getting better?

 

Convalescents. C-print mounted on aluminium. Size 45.5 x 45.5 cm.

http://www.saaraekstrom.com/

www.kalhamapiippo.com

Ida Pimenoff

Ida and the dreamlike poetry of senses! It is always so comforting to find pictures with a hint of hope in them. This whipped cream flower is so full of light, joy and sweetness. You can almost taste it.

Untitled IV. From the series Perhaps Loneliness Does Not Exist After all, 2002. 

125 x 100 cm. Edition 5.

ida.pimenoff@welho.com

http://www.idapimenoff.com

Marjukka Vainio

It has been said that Marjukka Vainio´s photographs are like jewels which glow in the darkness of winter. She has been photographing flowers a long time. But how! Is it possible to X-ray a soul?

From the series Light of the Earth. Tulip IX, 2005. 64 x 51 cm.

Gallery Taik

berlin@gallerytaik.com

Galleria Kone

Kulttuurikeskus Verkatehdas

galleriakone@gmail.com

Galleria Heino

info@galleriaheino.com

www.galleriaheino.com

PS. And then one addition more!

Catarina Ryöppy

It took awhile to get in touch with Catarina Ryöppy, who is one our best known artists. But today I got her e-mail telling that it is fine to add her picture to my blog.

I am happy to do so, because I was so impressed when I saw this picture for the first time. It is full of magic. The silent outsiders, who are they, disguised as velvety flowers?

Kapusiinit - varjo/ Capucines - Shadow.
Väripigmenttivedos/Pigment print, Ed. 6.

cat@ryoppy.net

http://www.ryoppy.net

A perfect day in Tampere

Who said that without food we would die, but without art we would starve? That was the reason to spend a Saturday in my old hometown Tampere where you can nowadays find good art and good food.

 

Incubate, 2010. Subodh Gupta/Hauser & Wirth.

The first address was Sara Hildén Art Museum and Subodh Gupta exhibition. This Indian artist is truly amazing. From his private observations based in his own history and the traditions of his native country grow a whole new world.

Stainless steel bowls, cups, lunch boxes, forks and spoons are shiny alphabets of his Indian vocabulary. What does come out of those huge eggs, warming themselves under the crystal chandeliers?

 

The exhibition is open until the end of April from Tuesday to Sunday at 11-18.  Closed during Eastern days 22. and 24.4.

Address is Laiturikatu 13, Särkänniemi, 33230 Tampere. Phone (03) 5654 3500.

Next step was Tampereen Taidemuseo to see the exhibition of The Young Artist of the Year: Anna Tuori.

Her paintings look first almost too sweet and skillfully made until you see things beneath the surface. The fairy tales turn into bad dreams; they are travel tickets to the depths of mind.

 Anna Tuori: Into the Wood I Made , 2009. Oil on board, 120 x 130 cm.

 

Psychokinesis, 2009. Oil on board, 40 x 30 cm.

This tiny painting was one of my favorites. How powerful can our mental abilities be?  
This one I found very impressive, too. The loneliness and nightmares of the childhood...

 

Fugitive Kind, 2006. Oil on canvas, 60 x 80 cm.

Anna Tuori exhibition is open until 24.4. from Tuesday to Sunday at 10-18. Closed on Good Friday. Address Puutarhakatu 34. Phone (03) 5656 6577.

After art the real food was badly needed.

We had a late lunch in the inner courtyard of Kehräsaari in chef Stefan Richter´s brand new Steakhouse that was opened in the beginning of March and seems to be pretty popular already.

Finnish-American Stefan became famous when he was taking part in America´s Top Chef competition and did quite well. Stefan is born in Tampere, has a summer house in Finland and even speaks Finnish, so we Finns did adopt him immediately. No wonder that he wanted a restaurant of his own in his old hometown.

 

The kitchen is in the middle of the restaurant so we can watch the busy cooks. My Tenderloin steak of Finnish beef was really good. A bit overdone, so I got the dessert for free. Thanks!

Book a table online http://www.bookatable.com/fi/118064/stefans-steakhouse/fi-FI or phone 010 423 3240.

The restaurant is open for Saturday and Sunday lunches and in the evenings from Tuesday to Sunday, closed on Mondays.