HIPPOLYTE STUDIO
Kalevankatu 18 B, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
+358 9 612 33 44, www.hippolyte.fi/studio
Open: Tue-Fri 12:00-17:00, Sat-Sun 12:00-16:00SANNA SARVA
My Teenage Years
6.2.–1.3. 2009
“My Teenage Years” is a photographic and textual semi-documentary installation. It comprises photographs that might have been taken in the district of Hätilä in my home Hämeenlinna at a time when I was a teenager. The photos are mounted in the form of a panel, with a multi-storey residential building/home seen from afar emerging as its main theme. The time of the year in the pictures is cold and grey, and what little sunlight can be glimpsed at times is also cold and sharp.
The textual elements are edited extracts from the letters and diaries of my teenage self. They too constitute a loose story in which I become aware of my own boundaries. The picture panel and the writings engage in a dialogue without falling into a fixed relationship. They are landscapes depicted by my adult self, landscapes infused by the monoculture that for myself personally is in the past, and reflections of my teenage self upon life and what is happening to me and what I want.
What fascinates me about photography is its ability to document and record, but also the universality and diversity of its format. Whether the photos depict immigrants of my acquaintance, healthcare workers I have come across as a client, or familiar residential districts of the 1950s, the topic is always specific, and the recording of the encounter always a challenging experience. The practice of art is for me a form of intense dialogue between the world and my own vision of it.
Sanna Sarva
Sanna Sarva was born in Hämeenlinna (1964). She has studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, in London, and she earned her MA from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki in 1998. Sarva's creative work is conceptual and political. She is interested in identity, language and places, approaching her themes from a social and political perspective. Many of her works are site-specific. Her work spans several different media, from photography to moving images to language. She has had several solo exhibitions, including one in the Kluuvi Gallery (2005 and 2000) and Gallery Leena Kuumola (2004) in Helsinki. She has also shown her work in several group exhibition, including Fractures of Life (2005) and ARS01 (2001) in Kiasma. Sarva has participated in many group exhibitions abroad, including Sweden (Killing Me Softly, Bildmuseet, Umeå, 2000) and Slovenia (Manifesta 3, Ljubljana, 2000).
© Sanna Sarva, 2009Ackowledgements: Arts Council of Finland
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More information:
Marja Kosunen, Hippolyte Studio, +358 9 612 33 44, info[at]hippolyte.fi
