Kukka Paavilainen’s exhibition is about light projecting on a film screen, about an image taking its form on canvas and about the role of a photograph as a starting point to a series of paintings.
A layer of paint can act like a glass or a film screen. A sunset turns a white wall red. In a painting, a projection can also open up into a sphere of its own which is something more than a mere window illusion or illusion of space. It is not a light source behind a glass nor its projection on a white wall, but a third space, which opens up behind the canvas.
The source motif in the photograph, seen in the exhibition, changes slowly into depictions of the border between reality and illusion. Reality mirroring on the surface of water continues into light projecting on canvas and further on to mirroring in human relationships.
At its best, a relationship can function like a film screen: one makes the other’s reflection visible and thus distinguishable. It is about becoming seen both in a reflection as well as in a dyadic relationship.
The exhibition is the first practical part of Kukka Paavilainen’s Doctoral thesis in fine art she is preparing for Academy of Fine Arts at the University of the Arts Helsinki. Her research, which takes the form of painting, can be followed through the pairs of artwork in the exhibition.
Kukka Paavilainen (b. 1976) graduated as a Master of Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts’ study programme of painting in 2005. She is currently working on her Doctor of Fine Arts studies at the Academy, which is a part of the University of the Arts Helsinki. Paavilainen had her debut exhibition at Forsblom Projects (Helsinki) in 2007. During 2009 she had a solo exhibition at Galleria UPP in Venice and in 2010 at Galerie Forsblom in Helsinki. In the autumn of 2013 she took part in the Art Goes Kapakka event in Helsinki and during the summer 2014 her works were a part of Mänttä Art Festival in Central Finland.
Kukka Paavilainen lives and works in Helsinki.
Image: Kukka Paavilainen, Sumu, 2012
October 3–26, 2014
KUKKA PAAVILAINEN
The Screen
PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERY HIPPOLYTE
Yrjönkatu 8–10 (courtyard), 00120 Helsinki, Finland
09 612 33 44, www.hippolyte.fi
Tue–Fri 12–17, Sat–Sun 12–16