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15
Hello Teppo, and welcome to NotRandomArt. The current issue is revolving around the problem of communication and identity. Is there any particular way you would describe your identity as an artist but also as a human being in dynamically changing, unstable times? In particular, does your cultural substratum/identity form your aesthetics?
Well, exactly, because of the dynamically changing and unstable times, it is also difficult or maybe unnecessary to get stuck on one certain identity. I was born, grown up and educated in Finland. I moved to Holland 6 years ago. Am I a Finnish artist? No. Am I a Dutch artist? No. Maybe notions of national identity are not so relevant in contemporary art. I could identify myself as an “outsider”, in artistical and social levels. Contemporary art and visual culture has become very universal but also split, I cannot describe any “style” or “ism” to identify my art. On personal level, I like to think that there is just one home, the Earth, where we all have to live on. But deep inside, I still consider myself as a Finn. Our personality is more or less a result of our background. Like my Dutch husband said, “it is easy to take a boy out of swamp (=Finland), but impossible to take the swamp out of the boy”.
Would you like to tell us something about your artistic as well as life background?
What inspired you to be in this artistic point in your life when you are now?
I was born and raised in a small village in Northern Finland, my home was literally in the middle of the forest, 7 kilometres to nearest school or shop. Cultural life hardly existed in a small community, but still I felt the need to create. I started painting with oil when I was about 12. There were some courses of painting for beginners and that was my start. And even I am not from a culturally oriented family, I still got good support from my mother. After school I thought that architecture was the right way for me and as an 18y old boy I moved to Finland's 2nd biggest city, Tampere, to study architecture at the Technical University. Moving to a real city was a big change socially and culturally for a country boy. After few years I started to questionaize my choice to study architecture. I felt that this is not my path and I dropped out from the university. I still continued painting for several years and had some small local success. Still I felt like an outsider at the local art scene. Running around in the same small circle I felt trapped and lost my enthousiasm for art and painting for many years. Six years ago I fell in love with a Dutch guy Jeroen van Paassen who is very active in art scene. I moved to the Netherlands and there I was introduced not only to a Dutch art circle, but to a network of emerging artists from each corner of the world. Suddenly I was surrounded by all level of contemporary Dutch and international artists, and they really made me feel welcome! That set my creativity and passion for art on fire again. I started to search new ways to express myself because oil painting I had done and I was stuck with that. I started experimenting with 3D elements, plastic and many different kind of possibilities to combine painting and architecture, to create my way of expression. That journey led to the use of polyester resin. It opened up all possibilities to express myself, using my experience in architecture and painting and the exploration of LED-lights, spray-paint, printed film, 3D elements etc. I really feel that I finally found my instrument to express myself.
Could you identify a specific artwork that has influenced your artistic practice or
has impacted the way you think about your identity as a participant of the visual
culture?
To be honest, no, I cannot name any particular artwork that formed me as an artist. Since childhood I already guzzled art books and in Finnish basic school and further in the architecture school I learnt more about history of art and architecture as well. My art is not a comment or addition on art history. No, my art is about today's life and therefore I'm more influenced by current and contemporary phenomenas. I like to make notes as an observer, without declarations or exclamation marks, about things that happen around us. How do we function as a human being in public spaces? Does that differ from how we function in more natural surroundings? How does internet and media effect us? How do we relate to each others? Contrasts between city and nature, privacy and publicity, science and beliefs, consuming and environment, beauty and ugliness, life and death. These kind of questions inspire me more than a single artpiece.
What is the role of technique in your practice? In particular are there any constraints or rules that you follow when creating?
Well, main elements in my techique are prints on film, paint, lights, sometimes 3D- objects. Actually my works can be considered as collages tied together with polyester resin. That is an amazing material that can take the two-dimensionality out of my work that I could not do by painting on canvas. This transparent material gives so much possibilites to build an artwork layer by layer. Of course resin is a liquid material during the work process and that might restrict me to grow up towards more sculptural expression. Casting the resin in moulds reduces some of these restrictions. In future I want to explore new ways to use resin in more sculptural way and challenge these restrictions.
of my work that I could not do by painting on canvas. This transparent material gives so much possibilites to build an artwork layer by layer. Of course resin is a liquid material during the work process and that might restrict me to grow up towards more sculptural expression. Casting the resin in moulds reduces some of these restrictions. In future I want to explore new ways to use resin in more sculptural way and challenge these restrictions.
lsophers as well as poets or musicians or dancers or visual artists but also by some places or landscapes or atmospheres ... For some years, I was used for example to go to India where I was used to follow some traditionnal muscians or to learn bharatanatyam and practice vipassana meditation... Of course this experience has impacted my art work.... This brought me to think and work differently... My experience in India brought me to discover traditionnal strong art and paradoxally to the way of Performance Art. But there I see one common point: to make no separation between art and life and to be here and now, without projection on the future.
It's difficult for me to speak about race and ethnic identity. But I can say that today we miss more and more this notion of “to be here and now” which is more present in some cultures ... By practising Performance Art, it's my way to be connected to this way of thinking. And even in this field actually it's more and more difficult. The society and the art world brings us more and more to plan in advance, to define our work, more than to do. Just to do. To do what we deeply need.
And of course, my encountering with Black Market International and later the notion of Open Source or Open session via PAErsche have also a big impact on my work. When we go on that, each of us perform by sharing time and space but without trying to convince each other on some common way. This is for me a wonderfull way how we can meet each other, regardless of our origin, our race or our “identity”...
Many of your works carry an autobiographical message. Since you transform your experiences into your artwork, we are curious, what is the role of memory in your artistic productions? We are particularly interested if you try to achieve a faithful translation of your previous experiences or if you rather use memory as starting point to create.
My memory is clearly a starting point to create. I don't have any autobiographical message. I use my personnal experience ( what I feel , what I see, what I learn, what I ear...) to work. It's a motor or a material. I'm not able to paint, so I can't do something with red or white or yellow or black colors. All I have is life, a body alive. And I need to do something with that...
My sensation about life sometimes is too intense then I need to transform this intensity in some action. Some artistic action... If people can take something from this action this is great... but I don't want to give them “a specific message” or to control the translation of my experience.