In this exhibition in Hippolyte Studio, Maija Laurinen contemplates the experience of silence and stillness and the relationship between the still and the moving image. Her video Mute Land: Silence, Stillness and Stasis transports the viewer to the silence of the night. In a picture that looks deceptively like a photograph, a snowy landscape changes almost imperceptibly. The changes are so slow that you only become aware of them after they have happened.

Remaining still, the work stretches the moment of the photograph, in silence and immobility. In spite of its seeming lack of motion, it does not allow the viewer to remain in the moment, escaping instead into an unbroken flow of images. The state of being completely still is unattainable, just like silence – change is inevitable; the landscape, the light, the experience of viewing – everything changes constantly. Expectations of future events become part of the experience. The landscape is silent, but our thoughts, our interpretations and above all our expectations refuse to be silent.

Maija Laurinen (b. 1978) uses both photography and video. She often explores the themes of her works through the experiences of space and of viewing a landscape. Observation and its obstruction are central concepts in her work. Laurinen studied filmmaking and photography and graduated with an MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts in Slovakia. She currently studies there for a postgraduate degree. Maija Laurinen has exhibited her work in numerous solo and group exhibitions internationally.

26 May – 18 June 2017
MAIJA LAURINEN
Mute Land: Silence, Stillness and Stasis

Hippolyte Studio
Yrjönkatu 8–10 courtyard, 00120 Helsinki
+358 9 612 33 44, www.hippolyte.fi
Opening hours: Tue–Fri 12–5 pm, Sat–Sun 12–4 pm

image: Maija Laurinen, Mute Land: Silence, Stillness and Stasis, 2016/2017 (still)