PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERY HIPPOLYTE
Kalevankatu 18 B, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
+358 9 612 33 44, www.hippolyte.fi
Open: tue-fri 12-17, sat-sun 12-16ELINA RELANDER & AURORA REINHARD
Bonds
6.-29.11.2009Discussion on Saturday, 14 November 2009, at 2 pm: Anna-Kaisa Rastenberger, Aurora Reinhard & Elina Relander. Welcome! (discussion in Finnish)
Elina Relander photographs male transsexuals and transvestites, whose life and dressing she has been following since 2007. With her photographs, Relander wants to open a door to a phenomenon that is strange and sensitive to many people, and also to showcase the individuals behind it.
The first part, Butterfly Within Me, is about the desire and need to dress up as a woman. The focus of the series is on the subjects and their viewpoint on this issue. The parallel series Bonds examines the relationships between the subjects and the people around them, their families and friends. Relander's work shifted in this direction when she noted how the happiness and self-approval of her subjects was largely based on their near and dear ones.
The photographs do not propose any single viewpoint or provide an answer. The subjects' attitude towards themselves is just as important as their bond to family and friends. The need to be oneself – to be a whole person – is the main message Elina Relander wants to communicate with her photos. For her partner in the dialogue exhibition, Elina Relander chose Aurora Reinhard, who has addressed similar issues in her work: people's relationship to themselves, to self-discovery and thereby to self-acceptance. Reinhard's video Boygirl (2002) provided the starting point for their collaboration in this exhibition. Based on interviews, Reinhard's Boygirl is about three girls who look like boys, but who consider themselves to be somewhere between male and female.
In this joint exhibition for Hippolyte's anniversary year, Reinhard shows new work. The documentaristic approach, as represented by Boygirl, has switched to a more subjective take on things. The exhibition includes video, photography and ready-made objects from 2008-2009. The starting point for these pieces has been both obsessions and subconscious feelings connected to appearance and femininity, which Reihard has put into form. By combining different objects and through variation or repetition, surprising associations are
formed.Elina Relander (b.1981, lives and works in Turku) graduated from the Turku Arts Academy in 2008 and has since then worked as a freelance photographer and an artist photographer. Most recently she has exhibited her work at the Photography Centre of Southeast Finland and at the Peri Centre of Photography. Photography for Relander is a way to investigate things and to gain access to places she would otherwise be denied entry. When she takes photos, she wants to forget herself and get to know the world around her – to see, touch and learn to understand.
Aurora Reinhard (b.1975, lives and works in Helsinki) has gained recognition for video works and photographic self-portraits that explore gender roles. Her work Boygirl won the International Media Art Award of the Centre for Art and Media (ZKM) in Germany in 2002. In recent years, Reinhard has extended her art also into three-dimensional media. Reinhard typically works on a broad front, aiming to communicate with the viewer. The bending of gender boundaries is apparent in her Kruunuvuori project that will be presented in Korjaamo Gallery on 20 November 2009. The project also includes a book co-authored with Minna Torppa and published by the Helsinki City Museum. In recent years Reinhard has exhibited her work in a solo show at Gallerie Anhava, in Room X in Kiasma, in the Design Museum in Helsinki, in the Vilnius European Capital of Culture programme and in the Tallinn City Gallery.
Elina Relander, Minna-Maaria - Home, 2008
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Information and press images:
Petronella Grönroos, exhibitions co-ordinator, Photographic Gallery Hippolyte, +358 9 612 33 44, firstname.lastname@hippolyte.fi
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Founded in 1978, the Hippolyte Photographic Gallery is the oldest operating photographic gallery in Finland, and a key influence in Finnish photographic art. The gallery was opened in late 1978 by Caj Bremer, Ismo Kajander, Sakari Sunila and Tuomo-Juhani Vuorenmaa in the premises of a former upholstery shop, a one-room space in Pietarinkatu street in Helsinki. The 30th anniversary year of the gallery will be celebrated for one year, starting in December 2008, which will mark the passage of exactly 30 years from the gallery's first show Seasons by Caj Bremer.
Photographic Gallery Hippolyte has invited photographic artists from four different generations to hold an exhibition in dialogue with an artist of their choice. The first of the four exhibitions, Ismo Kajander's dialogue with Nina Rantala marked the launch of the anniversary programme in December. The series continued in March 2009 with Ulla Jokisalo and Leena Saraste, in July with Elina Brotherus and Hannele Rantala, and will conclude in November with a show by Elina Relander and Aurora Reinhard.Other Anniversary Year Events
The anniversary year programme also includes the Helsinki Photography Festival 2009 (www.hpf.fi), organised in cooperation with the Helsinki City Art Museum and the Finnish Museum of Photography. Yhteinen leikki! (Collective Game!) is a cross-disciplinary art event to be held in public spaces in Helsinki in 2009, pushing the boundaries of the concept of photographic art (http://yhteinenleikki.blogspot.com). The anniversary programme will be complemented by a discussion series in the gallery. Hippolyte will also host a month-long artist residence programme during spring 2009. The programme is part of continuing cooperation with Le Pôle Image Haute-Normandie (Rouen, France), Centre culturel francais (Helsinki) and Photographic Centre Peri (Turku) and the Northern Photographic Centre (Oulu).Year of Photography 2009
The anniversary events of Photographic Gallery Hippolyte are part of the Year of Photography 2009 programme. www.katse.orgPhotographic Gallery Hippolyte’s anniversary year has been supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
Alfred Kordelin Foundation has supported the Year of Photography 2009.
The exhibition is a part of:
www.katse.org
