PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERY HIPPOLYTE
Kalevankatu 18 B, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
+358 9 612 33 44, www.hippolyte.fi
Open: Tue-Fri 12:00-17:00, Sat-Sun 12:00-16:008.1.-31.1.2010
SAMI PERTTILÄ
MindspaceArtist Talk Wednesday Jan 13, 5 p.m. - Welcome! (in Finnish)
Sami Perttilä's Mindspace exhibition presents selected works from 2006–2009. The imagery is consistent and harmonious – car wrecks, abandoned houses and household appliances discarded in the woods. The method, too, is consistent. Perttilä takes his photographs always by night or at dusk. The exposure time may be up to 20 minutes, during which he moves around the scene, painting his subject with light.
An ordinary flashlight and a small hand-held camera flash are often enough, with colour filters for tinting the light. Some urban light pollution or just pure moonlight may be seen in the background.The light from a camera flash creates both an instant and quickly disappearing image as well as a permanent memory. The colours in the photographs are layers in time.
The title of the exhibition refers to imaginary playgrounds from Perttilä's childhood. The sense of play is recaptured by the camera. Every photograph is unique, the sum of coincidence and experience. But always surprising, as if we were seeing the landscape with new eyes.
It is easy to imagine stories around the works. Who has abandons this thing? When, and why? No true answers are forthcoming, however, because the official history is buried under moss.
In the images, the real becomes a stage set. The abandoned places and objects get one last moment in the limelight. It is alright to look good in a photograph.
Sami Perttilä (b. 1975) clothes human indifference with ironic beauty in his photos. Discarded objects and wrecks acquire human characteristics and even a sculptural monumentality. The theatrical approach turns nature into a stage, creating a sense of uncertainly over what is real, what is fantasy. The official history of the subjects of the photographs are fast disappearing under moss. Perttilä's interest arose from childhood playsites and the child's ability to breathe life even into a wrecked car. The photographs are created when the light is faint or it is dark. Perttilä uses light to paint his subject. Every exposure is unique, a record of the view seen with new eyes. Sami Perttilä graduated as Master of Arts from the University of Art and Design Helsinki in 2006.
For more information and press images, please contact:
Sami Perttilä, Halla 1, 2008
Petronella Grönroos, exhibition co-ordinator / Photgraphic Gallery Hippolyte +358 9-612 33 44, firstname.lastname@hippolyte.fi
