“AAARGH – Outbursts,” Pauli Hirtolahti

My exhibition speaks about societal distress, frustration, and extreme emotions. I have tried to depict these emotional outbursts in my works. My paintings are like punk-inspired angry shrieks, reacting to the injustices around me—perhaps even a bit naive in their simple fury.

Themes that have been swirling in my mind while creating my works include misanthropy, structural violence, fake democracy, totalitarianism, censorship, freedom of speech, energy politics, radiation, mutation, evolution, nuclear destruction, genocide, human relationships, hatred, pain, and self-loathing.

My works are created using oil paints and mixed media techniques. I especially wanted to add mass and a rough surface to my paintings, which I achieved by incorporating materials like coffee, tea, glue, plaster, and more. In contrast to my paintings, the exhibition also features two sculptures. For these, I sought a similarly grotesque appearance as in my paintings, but the final result is a more humorous, satirical, and self-ironic world, as opposed to the harsh worldview presented in my paintings.

This text was created with AI assistance