To whom it may concern is an expression addressing an unknown recipient of a letter. Ulla Kokki’s and Johanna Heikkilä’s exhibition at Hippolyte Studio is in itself a gesture directed at anyone experiencing it. An image is born from an act of reaching outside of oneself and through the works in this exhibition the artists are reaching towards their reader and viewer. On display are images and texts that try to outline being, depicting, love, looking, longing and the trancient.

The works also look at the essence of making pictures and the act of looking. The images are not about recording a decisive moment or about perfect timing, but they talk of time and its passing. An image is always an attempt in being at the same time present both here and later elsewhere. Kokki and Heikkilä ask how can the past be present while it’s already outside of our reach. A photograph holds an experience of uniqueness, but still enables us to recreate a moment passed.

Ulla Kokki (b. 1992) and Johanna Heikkilä (b. 1986) are visual artists, based in Helsinki. They have worked together since 2014, approaching the essence of photography from their personal points of view. The starting points to their collaboration are absoluteness and lightness. Heikkilä’s method can at times feel like a farewell to photography, but one can hardly give up its meaning completely. Kokki looks in from a distance and tries to approach the possibility of an image. Their works have been shown in joint exhibitions at e.g. Titanik Gallery in Turku and Gallery Lapinlahti in Helsinki.

Both Ulla Kokki and Johanna Heikkilä have graduated as visual artists from the Arts Academy at Turku University of Applied Sciences in 2015. Ulla Kokki is currently studying in the Masters programme in Photography at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Helsinki, while Heikkilä will commence her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts at the University of the Arts in Helsinki this fall.

The exhibition has received support from the Arts Promotion Centre Finland and Espoon seudun kulttuurisäätiö (the Espoo region cultural foundation).

29 June – 28 July 2017
ULLA KOKKI & JOHANNA HEIKKILÄ
To Whom It May Concern

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

image: Ulla Kokki, I don’t believe in you, 2014