Lotta Wennäkoski’s Until the Dreams at times feels like a crowd assembled to shout at you, a comic play and a love song to Finland. Composed for the 90th anniversary of the Radio Symphony Orchestra and the 117-year-old Polytech Choir, Wennäkoski writes odes about love that almost soothe you, if her complex rhythms weren’t creating such a sense of excitement, even at times wonder. (Continues…)
The interrelations between mankind and nature set the ground for Peter Holliday’s photographic work. In his current exhibition The Mountain of Fire, featuring images from his series Where the Land Rises, he investigates themes of absence and remembrance by studying the volcanic eruption of Eldfell on the island of Heimaey in 1973 in Iceland. (Continues…)
Helsinki-based menswear line FRENN mixes traditional suiting and casual style serving the demands of modern living. Around Journal interviewed founders Jarkko Kallio and Antti Laitinen on their label’s latest collaboration with visual artist Stig Baumgartner. Individualism, sustainability and athleisure are today’s key words in fashion and FRENN manages to contribute to all these ideas. (Continues…)
Inka Bell (b. 1981) was selected as Grafia’s Graphic Designer of the Year 2018. Bell works open-mindedly in-between design and art, concentrating specially on serigraphy. In her current prize exhibition Zanni at ARTEK textures, structures and the sense of different materials have an apparent role. Her approach to the relationship between two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms is intriguing. “I mostly work with paper, and I try to find new ways to utilize this mundane material. Quite often we see and use paper as a two-dimensional surface, and I am interested in studying how we can use it in a new way.” (Continues…)
Contained and eruptive, the galvanic impressions that contemporary artist Elina Merenmies meticulously paints and draws seize the viewer with their sense of truth. “I was probably six years old when I fantasized about the profession of an artist, and by the age of eight I painted with oil colors for the first time. When I was young, drawing and painting were somehow ways of staying sane; nowadays they are an inseparable part of normal, happy everyday life as well as what feels like good physical work.” (Continues…)
A selection of photographs and videos from Elina Brotherus’ series Règle du jeu (Rules of the game) is currently being exhibited at Galleria Heino in Helsinki. The series based on event scores, short scripts that set out the actions of the performance, was first exhibited at the photography gallery of the Pompidou Centre in Paris after Brotherus won the French Carte Blanche PMU prize in 2017. The competition brief was to analyze the world of games and to give it expression through the medium of images. The result is a collection of images that need to be read. (Continues…)
Finnish artist Tiina Pyykkinen’s (b.1983) art underlines some essential attributes of our lives – full presence and slow perception. Her strong alkyd and oil paintings and installations serve as stages where the viewer becomes the actor of a play, fulfilling the purpose of the artwork. Space and light have a fundamental role in her work. (Continues…)
The 93rd Pitti Uomo fashion fair will be held in Florence from the 9th until the 12th of January. What makes this year so special is that Finland is the Guest Nation of the biannual event presenting eight menswear labels at the fair: Rolf Ekroth, Formal Friday, Ikla Wright x Turo, Mannisto, Nomen Nescio, Saint Vacant, Vyner Articles and Maria Korkeila x R-Collection. Guest Nation Finland is a project part of the Pitti Uomo’s program of special events. Around Journal interviewed Maria Korkeila about the project and on her design philosophy. (Continues…)
As a closure to Finland’s 100th independence year, visual artist Sanna Saastamoinen-Barrois, presents a documented series of her outdoor exhibition Swidden Rotation at Around Journal. The photographs printed on sailcloths survived from spring until late autumn in the national park of the fortress island Vallisaari. Time and place had a significant role in the presentation. This series adds yet another layer to her art: only at the end can the changes in the background, the seasons of nature, be made visible. (Continues…)
Around Journal teamed up with Urban View to create the theme for Finland’s largest interior, decoration and design event Habitare 2018. ROOTS celebrates authenticity and highlights the personality of things. Creativity triumphs over obeying the rules. (Continues..)
