Current States I was the first public exhibition in a process that I’ve been involved in for quite some time. For me Current States refers to the moving, changing and flowing qualities of our time where the Now seems to be infinitely hard to reach. It also refers to water, as liquid, ice or gas and it can also imply something immobile, static and unchanging in a time of turmoil. This for me is also a reference to place: my own and our place as a species in relation to everything else on this planet. Where I am right now (not in an hour or tomorrow or next year) seems to be extremely important to pay attention to.

In the spring of 2020 I spent around 10 weeks mostly alone at my family’s summer place in Lokalahti in Southwestern Finland in quarantine during the Covid-19 outbreak. Many of the exhibited works have taken their first breaths during this time. Some of the works have a longer history. Some shorter.

I’m interested by many things. I practice focusing my attention on everything around me especially in relation to the changing seasons from spring to summer and onwards to autumn and winter. As the world changes so do I. I try to think of myself as being equal to those that I meet, be it a snail, tree or flower.

We are a part of this place. Not visitors.
That’s a huge difference. 

Current States I also includes three collaborative artworks. Two audiovisual works where I am collaborating with sound artist Walter Sallinen and one together with photographer Tuukka Pasanen combining drawings and photographs. These encounters together are of vital importance and I am very happy and honored to have the chance to be collaborating with them here.

The first work of this series Centre of Our Universe (Exhibited at Mäntän Kuvataideviikot 2019) focused on our dependence on fresh water to survive. A few of the works in this exhibition touch on this theme too. Water is of huge importance to me. So are trees and plants. Further on many of the works also deal with themes and questions surrounding death, loneliness, entropy, peace, colour, equality, ecology, perception and time. The weeks spent alone in the woods and by the lakeside was hard in many ways but still one of the best things that has happened to me in many years. I can’t recall when I’d had such time for observation. Every day is a new day, truly. And when it was time to leave. I did not want to. And here on display are now a few of these thoughts that rose during that time.

I would like to thank Koneen Säätiö for making it possible for me to spend my days in isolation observing the natural world without worries about income during the lockdown.

Exhibited at Vapaan Taiteen Tila in Helsinki 15-20.10.2020

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Corona Diaries, 2020
Series of digital pigment prints 30 x 20 cm

12 Mars – Något om finska ordspråk / Something about Finnish sayings
22 Mars – Strandens sista is / Last ice of the lakeshore
23 Mars – Skogens sista is / Last ice of the forest
28 Mars – En del av dina rötter / A part of your roots
29 Mars – Vårsolens varma vinkel / The warm angle of spring sun
13 April – Omfamnad av jättar / Hugged by giants
13 April – Min älskade skog / My beloved forest
18 April – Om att leva mellan världar / About living between worlds
21 April – Björkskogen / Birch forest
21 April – I viloläge / Resting Mass
7 Maj – Ursäkta våra misstag / Forgive us our mistakes
21 Maj – Vårskogens blom / The blooming of the spring forest
28 Maj – Ett hem / A home
18 Augusti – Barnens död fällde modern / The deaths of the children felled the mother
19 Augusti – Ett Universum / An Universe