Dark Zone of Hannes Heikura

Keskuskatu, 24.03.2010 klo 12.08 © Hannes Heikura.

Award-winning photographer Hannes Heikura has been my idol for ages. His honest way of seeing and capturing the moment has always been impressive – you could be at his side and not see what he saw. This lone wolf also chose very stubbornly the pictures he wanted to get published which certainly did not always please his employer, Finland´s biggest daily newspaper.

Since spring 2010 Hannes Heikura has been a freelancer. Now he shows his first art photo exhibition in Helsinki.

Dark Zone is a collection of powerful B/W pictures, taken during a year in the streets of Helsinki. Their quality is suberb - printed photos can never have the same intensity as the real ones, mounted on aluminium. There black is blacker than black and the rays of light shine like rays of hope.

They are fine pictures, but why I was a little disappointed? Why did I see them in context to newspaper, not as works of art?

Dark Zone in Helsinki Art Museum Salomonkatu 15, 00100 Helsinki, near Kamppi metro station. Open Tue-Sun 11-19 until 4th September.

Finnish summer beauties

Lush green forests and fields, small rivers, lakes, beautiful old houses - if you want to see the Finnish summer at it´s best go to Perniö.

At the number 1841 Perniöntie you´ll find this home housing during the summer lovely art by the daughters of sculptor Armas Hutri. On the first floor Eila Naukkarinen shows her rose watercolours and upstairs are the elegant fashion miniatures by Kaija Rosma, this time painted also with flaming colours.  

And in a smaller building there is a selection of C-prints by Kira Gluschkoff, one of our best known fashion photographers. Here she shows her fashion photos and portraits – a fine combination of power, humour and tenderness.

At the opening night the weather and the artists Kaija and Kira were smiling.
Lightnings exhibition at Perniön taidetalo Pyynpivo, Perniöntie 1841, 25520 Perniö. Open Thu-Sun from 12-18 until 7th of August.

The rose petal night for Tiia Vanhatapio

If you thought that being a fashion designer is like dancing on roses, you were right. Only that more often it is not dancing on rose petals but on thorns.

Anyway, there are those rose petal moments, too, and for Tiia Vanhatapio one them was last Friday. It was the opening night of her shiny new store in the excellent location at the heart of Helsinki.

Tiia´s wonderful fashion sense reminds me of the sweet and dramatic moments of life. Here you can buy her seductive dresses for the moments you´ll remember forever and her lovely-funny baby clothes. And in the cellar is Kuilu Galleria for art exhibitions, at the moment you can see there the works by Rosa Liksom.

In the opening night Tiia was wearing Skin Sleeve Dress of her AW 11/12 collection and her man Eero Leppänen dark shades to hide his weary eyes. Having the shop ready for the opening night did not leave too many hours for the sleep...

Tiia Vanhatapio Store is in the newly renovated Kiseleff house, Unioninkatu 27 B, 00100 Helsinki. Open Monday-Friday 11-19, Saturday 11-17.

www.vanhatapio.fi

Cassiopeia Dress and Mamie Short Sleeved Bolero 
from Tiia´s SS11 Druides Collection. 

Photo by Nina Merikallio.

Let´s celebrate new Finnish Young Designers!

The Young Designer of the Year Prize 2011 was today awarded to Laura Laine and Heikki Salonen, who both got 2500 euros and a tiny exhibition in the cellar of Design Forum Finland. It was great to notice that in Finland fashion is not a dirty word but is at last getting the attention it should have deserved ages ago.

Ladies first – designer Laura Laine has an astonishing career as an illustrator whose work is seen not only in Finland but also abroad. Her signature way of drawing looks like a stylish tornado had visited a A3 size white paper - the hair and clothing of the girls are in a constant movement and all the girls have a mile long legs. (Needless to say: so has Laura herself, too.) 

Heikki Salonen is now the creative director of Italian Diesel´s women´s wear, but at the same time he works with his own label as well. Ethical, ecological, inspiring challences – these are the qualities he wants to realise in his work. So goodbye rapid seasons of cheap so-called fashion and welcome interesting well-made collections by Heikki! (You can see some them in Helsinki 10 concept shop.) And we welcome Heikki as well: after many years abroad he has now a new home in Helsinki.

Young Designer of the Year 2011 exhibition is open daily until 18th September 2011 in Design Forum Finland, Erottajankatu 7, Helsinki.

www.designforum.fi/youngdesigner

The tender eyes of Hannah Modigh

Hannah Modigh: A snake in the car.

Who would have thought that this pretty, pocket-size Swedish photographer Hannah Modigh has guts to go to places that are both dark, desperate  and dangerous. And capture the beauty in them.

The months she spent 2006 in the small coal mining town St. Charles in Virginia, USA, photographing people and their poverty resulted a book Hillbilly Heroin, Honey that won last year Svenska Fotobokspriset, award given to the best Swedish Photobook. 

Now a limited selection of those pictures are to be seen in Helsinki. But buy the book, if you want to see more!

Hannah Modigh: Hillbilly Heroin, Honey in Galleria Luova, Albertinkatu 16, 00120 Helsinki until 19.6.2011. Open Tu-Fri 11-18, Sat-Sun 11-16.

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.