PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERY HIPPOLYTE
Kalevankatu 18 B, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
+358 9 612 33 44, www.hippolyte.fi

2 July - 1 August 2008
Tuomas Laitinen, Erkka Nissinen, Anssi Pulkkinen, Eliisa Suominen
Curator Heta Kuchka
Open: Mon–Fri 12.00–17.00, Sat–Sun closed

See exhibition leaflet: http://www.hippolyte.fi/galleria/kesavihko08.pdf

 

The Photographic Gallery Hippolyte has for several years invited a member of the Union of Artist Photographers, the organization which runs the gallery, to curate an exhibition for July. The invited curators of the earlier exhibitions were Jyrki Parantainen, Rita Jokiranta and Heli Hiltunen, with Jari Silomäki curating last year's show. This year the curator is visual artist Heta Kuchka (b. 1974). In her own work, both photography and video, Heta Kuchka studies communication between people, topical issues of identity, and the tensions between the individual and society, rendered through everyday observations and presented with humour.

Heta Kuchka has compiled an interesting exhibition of work by artists who either work in a different way than herself or examine their subject matter from viewpoints that are new to her. Their inventive working methods open up new possibilities for the dialogue between viewer and artist, inviting the audience to accept new ways for creating the experience of art. The artists in the exhibition are Tuomas Laitinen, Erkka Nissinen, Anssi Pulkkinen and Eliisa Suominen.

 

Tuomas Laitinen (b. 1976) studied at the Departments of Painting and Time and Space at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. Laitinen works with images, collages inscribed on plexiglas by drawing, painting, digital processing, or formulated with an angle grinder and a drill, until they become a modern phantasmagoria blending real and fictitious events. Light makes the image visible and alive, creating singular effects and a cyclical movement. The dramatic tension invites viewers to create a story from their experience of the work. Tuomas Laitinen lives and works in Helsinki.

Erkka Nissinen (b. 1975) studied at the Department of Time and Space at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. Nissinen's video works take a performative approach, telling stories about the potential and impossibility of relationships while exploiting with humour the conventions of cinematic narrative. Erkka Nissinen lives and works in Helsinki and Hong Kong.

Eliisa Suominen (b. 1982) studied at the Department of Painting of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. Suominen makes collages from fragments of postcards, creating tiny imaginary worlds that are then cast in epoxy resin. The finished works are three-dimensional objects that resemble souvenirs and incorporate old stories and stamps. Eliisa Suominen lives and works in Helsinki.

Anssi Pulkkinen (b. 1977) studied at the Department of Sculpture at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. He is a storyteller whose video works examine the human condition. Pulkkinen's installations reframe space to create illusions, forcing the viewer to look at things from different perspectives. Anssi Pulkkinen lives and works in Helsinki.

 

The exhibition is supported by the National Council for Photographic Art.
Thanks also to AV-arkki – the Distribution Centre for Finnish Media Art, Art-Print, Chris Bolton and Johanna Lecklin.
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For more information and press images, please contact:
Petronella Grönroos, exhibition co-ordinator / Photographic Gallery Hippolyte +358 9-612 33 44, firstname.lastname@hippolyte.fi