SILENCE – Janne Laine
Janne Laine’s works are a journey into the immaterial.
Janne Laine (born 1970) is a graphic artist from Tampere. His primary technique is heliogravure, where an image is exposed onto a copper plate, which is then etched and worked further. The starting point is photography, but the simplified expression of his works is created layer by layer.
The selection of the subject, capturing it, processing the plate, and finally printing are all crucial stages for achieving the successful outcome.
Laine masters traditional metal engraving techniques well, but avoids technical gimmickry. He works copper in a very restrained manner, mostly polishing the already etched plate. The monochromatic color surfaces are created using aquatint. He rarely adds color to the images themselves. If color appears, it remains a separate element in the works.
The works focus on two distinct themes: landscape and human beings, each depicted in a simplified and visually consistent manner. Both themes hold equal importance and complement each other in Laine’s production.
People and Human Relationships
Laine’s works illustrate the tendency of people to create networks, form pairs, and groups. He uses models in his images, which he photographs himself.
He simplifies and stylizes the images, but leaves the people true to their own likeness. Sometimes he blurs the personality, creating a composition reminiscent of passport photos. The people in the works become examples with whom anyone can identify, representing one’s own personal relationship network.
When photographing couples, Laine gives more space to the subjects. He captures real couples: the photos are staged, but the people and their relationships are authentic.
In several larger series, Laine has addressed sexual minorities and society’s need to categorize and define people based on their sexual orientation. He challenges the viewer to sometimes identify with the images, while at other times to feel like an outsider.
Alongside black-and-white prints, Laine has used single-colored surfaces. However, the colors are never just decorative in his works. While they have their own aesthetic significance, they are justified primarily through their symbolic meaning. The rainbow flag, liturgical colors, or the color wheel are juxtaposed with faces, kisses, or interpersonal relationships.
Immaterial Landscapes
Laine has also used the camera to create strongly simplified landscapes. These subjects have been found during travels in places such as Iceland, South Africa, New York, and China.
He focuses on landscapes with a strong tension but still relies on simple elements. A row of street lamps or a snowy landscape is enough for him to create an image.
A recurring landscape theme shows the merging of earth, water, and air into a covering light mass. These steamy places have been found all over the world. They appear very similar, but small differences create varied atmospheres in the images.
The use of warm, reddish hues alongside black gives a strong impression of the vibrancy of the African landscapes, while the Icelandic works show pure black, portraying the land covered by glaciers and rocks just as one has always imagined.
At heart, Laine is a romantic, searching for and creating atmospheres. His works contain both dramatic forms and perfectly silent moments. The image arises more from a mental state than from the need to tell a story. For him, the landscape represents an original image.
The time before human-made reality lives strongly in the natural experiences Laine conveys in his works. In making aesthetic choices about his subjects, he brings the human figure into his images as both observer and experiencer. Beauty does not exist without the viewer.
Text by:
Veikko Halmetoja, Art critic
This text was created with AI assistance