Susan's Writings

The End of the Circle - German Bernal Caicedo

The exhibition Tappaa Aikaa –Killing Time is more than geometric objects on a canvas. As we walk around the installation, we experience the dynamic space that becomes the protagonist of our attention rather than the object itself. German Bernal Caicedo’s work is interactive, offering a new awareness of the reality we observe at first sight.

In A History of Eternity (oil and acrylic on canvas), also the title of one of Jorge Luis Borges’ books in which he maps out his disarmingly empty version of the eternal, we see how the writer has influenced the artist at the time of conceiving his work.

“All the titles are connected with a circular concept,” says Caicedo. The wooden sculpture FIN connects different planes. The White House is a white drawing on a black background. “This is my statement of what is happening in America,” he says.

Tappaa Aikaa, the main installation, literally means Killing Time. “What I mean by it is to dissolve the meaning of time to become aware of space. For me, killing time is to stop worrying about time and focus on what is happening around us,” Caicedo says.

The artist wants the viewer to take time off from the fast, busy life we live to see what the installation is about and says: “We are living in this fast world and life is so short. We have the tendency to be superficial, we need to be deeper, more focused,” and continues: “With this work I didn’t want to create objects or create paintings, but to show that when you move you see things from a different perspective, you see that things can change.”

Susan Fourtane – HT

Killing Time at Jangva Galleria
until 4 January.
Uudenmaankatu 4-6
Tue-Fri 11-19
Sat-Sun 11-17
www.jangva.fi

Brigitte Bardot

Annu Kapulainen’s drawings and paintings are a display of bright, intense colours where symbolism plays an important role.

 

A graduate from the Moscow State Academic Art Institute (painting department), Annu Kapulainen has a classical education in fine arts. Interested in traditional mediums of art and using oil on canvas as her main technique, the artist tries to find the essential in life, describing it through human beings or still life. “My paintings are always made in a figurative style. Sometimes they are painted completely in a realistic way, and sometimes I use two and three-dimensional surfaces together in my pictures,” says the artist.

A detail from the work Souvenirs from Paris

The exhibition Journey is based on her trips to Paris and partially on her trips and time living in Moscow. Annushka Spilled Linseed Oil and Russian Love have the Vanitas-theme, and they are based on the novel Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.

A crayon drawing installation series of 12 little canvases, also entitled Journey, contains the artist’s self-portrait and other different pictures about her impressions of Paris. There are details of some sculptures in the Louvre, some street art from Paris and everything between that. “I found different, interesting time and cultural layers in Paris. In a couple of my works, like Black Lights (Mustat Valot), I’m also handling the Immigration-theme,” says Kapulainen.

Some art works of this exhibition have been shown in 2007 in the artist’s solo show at the Gallery of Cité des Arts, in Paris, where she participated in a residence programme.

Susan Fourtane – HT
Annu Kapulainen – Image

Kaurismäki's film puts three men in a karaoke bar on Christmas Eve.

Mika Kaurismäki’s latest fictional feature-length film Three Wise Men brings drama with a dash of humour in a genuinely rewarding and sometimes hilarious trip through the male psyche.

A chance meeting at a hospital on Christmas Eve brings three old friends together who head out in search of a place to drown their sorrows. Matti is a soon-to-be father crippled by self-doubt. Erkki, the ladies’man, is battling an unnamed illness and is emotionally wounded by his estrangement from his young son. Rauno is an unsuccessful actor trying to reunite with his own son. Their lives have not entirely worked out the way they expected.

The characters manage to bully the owner of a karaoke bar into letting them in, setting the stage for unexpected breakdowns, emotional revelations and possible redemption.

The three principal performers, Kari Heiskanen, Pertti Sveholm and Timo Torikka, were heavily involved in how the script took shape.

During the filming, Kaurismäki relied on the actors to shape the film through improvisation. “The idea for Three Wise Men was born in discussions with the three main actors. Director John Cassavetes and his way of working with improvisation came up, and soon after we decided to experiment and make a film inspired by his method,” says Kaurismäki.

Filmgoers are guaranteed to be left with a sense of satisfaction after viewing Kaurismäki’s amusing drama about masculinity.

See information about screenings www.finnkino.fi 

Susan Fourtane – HT
Mikko Stig – Image