Ripsu
Personas
8.6.-1.7.2023
It is good to have many personae, to make collections, sew up several, collect them as we go along in life. As we become older, with such a collection at our behest, we find we can portray any aspect of self most anytime we wish. However, at some point, most particularly as one grows into and past mid-life and on into old age, one’s personas shift and meld in mysterious ways. Eventually, there is a kind of ‘meltdown,’ a loss of personae complete, thereby revealing what would, in its greatest light, be called the “true self.”
(Author and psychoanalyst Clarissa Pinkola Estés in Women Who Run with the Wolves, 1992)
The works included in the Personas exhibition were created as I examined the questions of identity, roles and self. For example, I was wondering if one self is just an illusion. Perhaps I am a constantly changing representation of me, formed by the sensations, observations and memories of a specific moment. Is the process of finding oneself a pointless and hopeless effort? Is it possible that a person’s self is at the same time a subject and an object – an observer and the subject of observation. Or does this require at least two selves?
The Personas exhibition features colorful self-portraits that I took at home in Töölö. The persons in the images change rapidly, but I feel that they are all equally real and genuine.
Ripsu (b. 1954) is a Helsinki-based art historian (MA) and photographer. The exhibition at Galleria Huuto is her eighth solo exhibition. Ripsu’s photography book Personas was published in January 2023.
The last day of Ripsu’s exhibition is exceptionally Saturday, July 1st.
Contact information
ripsuhongisto(a)gmail.com
ripsuhongistosalmi.com
Instagram: ripsuhongistosalmi
