PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERY HIPPOLYTE
Kalevankatu 18 B, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
+358 9 612 33, www.hippolyte.fi
Open: Tue-Fri 12-17, Sat-Sun 12-16
(Closed 6 January 2011)

5-29 January 2012
Erica Kovanen
A Room of One’s Own II

Erica Kovanen’s exhibition A Room of One’s Own II reflects ideas of subjective existence, which always blends personal history with the current moment. The artist’s self-portraits search for their maker’s innermost being: ”What I look like and what I feel”. At the same time, Kovanen expands her self-portraits by inviting her siblings and other family members to appear in the pictures.

The recurrent motifs in the photographs are a lonely figure, water and family. The pictures were taken in the artist’s own home as well as on trips to France, Poland, and South Korea. In some of them the artist poses by herself, in others together with family members. Pictures of the artist alone in an empty, alien place are juxtaposed with pictures of the family’s children in their childhood home.

Kovanen’s working process starts from sensory experiences evoked by the environment and the inspiration which follows, which in turn gives rise to new mental landscapes. An essential element in the form and content of the final work is the desire for subjective self-reflection.

The inspiration for the series as well as the title of the exhibition are from Bo Carpelan's novel Urwind. In the exhibition, ’a room of one’s own’ refers to a space where coming out can be rehearsed and where the journey of becoming oneself acquires a visual form.

Erica Kovanen (b. 1982) lives and works in Helsinki. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art from the Department of Photography at the Turku Arts Academy in 2008. She is currently completing her MFA studies in the School of Art and Design at Aalto University. Erica Kovanen has exhibited her work in group and solo exhibitions in Finland and abroad since 2005. A Room of One’s Own II continues her exhibition A Room of One’s Own, presented in 2010 at the Photographic Centre Peri in Turku.

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For more information and press images, please contact:
Petronella Grönroos, exhibition co-ordinator / Photgraphic Gallery Hippolyte +358 9-612 33 44, firstname.lastname@hippolyte.fi

Erica Kovanen, 2010