Katri Mononen
Whirls, Whispers and Fountains
Galleria Huuto Uudenmaankatu
2.8.- 20.8.2017
The Whirls, Whispers and Fountains exhibition features my paintings created in 2016 and 2017 using a combination of acrylic and spray techniques. My paintings are made up of thin translucent layers and thick heavy masses of color. I combine different painting styles from precise lines to abundantly flowing paint.
When I started to work on the exhibition, I became interested in photographs of space, illustrative images representing space as well as theatre stages. I examined the photographs I found, taken with the help of radio telescopes, and illustrative images with the text “an artist’s view” as well as various stage lights and sets. In my mind, the light-absorbing matt black on the edge of theatre stages and the bright spotlights began, in a strange way, to intertwine with the infinite darkness of space and the stars occasionally lighting it up.
As laymen, our perceptions of space rely on the representations: photographs, videos and images produced by artists. We receive information from the universe where we live, one little piece at a time, as if limited by the narrow beam of stage lights.
When we look up into the starry sky, we look into the past. On the scale of space, even the speed of light is slow. Radio telescopes make it possible to see faraway galaxies as they were billions of years ago. The majority of the universe is believed to be dark matter. Even though it cannot be seen, there is evidence of its existence. In other words, our view of reality based on observations is very limited. I am very fascinated by the thought of seeing into the past and matter imperceptible to human senses.
Thoughts of space and stages affect me in the background but my paintings are created on the terms of painting, freely and intuitively. The content of my paintings is ultimately linked to the painting process. The visual language and material nature of my paintings is important.
For me, a painting is a bit like a photograph of space on a microscopic scale. In a complete painting one can see a small piece of the past – the events at certain moments, captured motion and presence. Painting is also a way to imagine an invisible world.
I wish to thank the Finnish Cultural Foundation’s Pirkanmaa Regional Fund and the Arts Council of Pirkanmaa (Arts Promotion Centre Finland) for supporting my exhibition.
Katri Mononen (b. 1981) lives and works in Nokia. Her works have been on display, for example, at solo exhibitions at the Porvoo Art Hall in 2015 and tm-Galleria in 2012 and at the Young Artists 2015 exhibition at Kunsthalle Helsinki and at the Fin(n)ish group exhibition at RARE Gallery in New York in 2014.
Further information:
www.katrimononen.com
katri.mononen(at)gmail.com
