Iina Heiskanen’s works at Hippolyte Studio all share a process of folding, where surfaces alternate between exposed and hidden. The woodcuts hanging on the walls result from a systematic folding of the paper and its repetitive rhythm. The “columns”, which consist mainly of grey squares, play with the shapes of vertical and horizontal forms, and reflect on their relationship to time and distance. In the exhibition, visitors are invited to take from a stack of sheets featuring a photograph of the Alps–one of the starting points for the Unreal Hermitage exhibition. The process of folding and printing has also been central to the creation of this work.
The abstract grids in the exhibition and the photo-based work are connected beyond methods of paper folding and woodcut technology. The artist initially discovered the old photograph of the Alps in an antiquarian bookshop in Trieste, where she has spent a lot of time over the last decade. The experience of the mountains, which are seldom fully visible through the fog, is related to the theme of emergence and disappearance. Its shades are repeated on the grey-scale of the works – and vice versa – whereas the contours of the mountain, when flattened into a photograph, play like folds on the surface of a stone.
Shades of grey, colour combinations, and the ways various folds simultaneously cover and reveal something new all uncover notions of perception and representation in their own way. The image of the mountains is related to the way one experiences them at different times of the day or year. The materiality of smooth, flawless paper and its function as an image mediator is emphasized when disturbed through the act of folding. Thus, in Iina Heiskanen’s works, the observation and study of perception are directed both to the environment and one’s artistic process.
Iina Heiskanen is a visual artist working in Helsinki and Trieste, Italy. Heiskanen works mainly with woodcuts, but photography and drawing are also crucial in her art-making process. Heiskanen works primarily on themes of time and temporality, starting from perception. Heiskanen graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts / University of the Arts Helsinki in 2016 and a Master of Arts from the University of Art and Design (now Aalto University) in 2008. Her works have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Finland and abroad, including Riihimäki Art Museum, Menier Gallery in London and Shirin Gallery in Tehran. In Helsinki, Iina Heiskanen’s previous solo show was in Galleria Katariina in 2019. www.iinaheiskanen.com
Iina Heiskanen
Unreal Hermitage
29 October – 21 November 2021
Hippolyte Studio
image: Iina Heiskanen, Joutilas, 2021
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