Pori–Helsinki–London, Anna Jensen & Sara Kärpänen
The Pori–Helsinki–London exhibition is a process with the theme of time and place, interaction, and scene documentation – in other words, correspondence between London, Helsinki, and Pori. How do different places influence thought, and how does thought take a visual form?
Small diary-like drawings are combined with text, receipts, photos, and fragments of various documents from moments, places, and states of mind experienced. Pori is the starting point, where we met, and where it all began. Pori as a space and experience is already present in the works, where we explore interaction and place-basedness. The documented time was a time of change and moving.
According to an old saying, when traveling from one place to another, the soul follows two days behind. In constant motion, the soul or mind doesn’t always seem to catch up at all.
Settlement/adaptation, permanence, peace, haste – all these factors influence the works.
The importance of doing emphasizes when settling into a new environment, grasping daily life and home. Doing forces one to reflect: how am I in this place and time, and how do I express that to someone else? Does my mark, text, and image change depending on the city? How do the stimuli sent by another’s messages influence my work? At the same time, the exhibition examines what is personal in a collective project and what belongs to the other, as well as the relationship maintained through two people’s different media. The works leave room for surprise and various interpretations and observations.
Sara Kärpänen will graduate with a Master of Arts from Aalto University in spring 2014. In addition to her artistic practice, she has worked as a journalist, public relations officer, and researcher. Kärpänen specializes in context-based photographic interventions and multimedia projects.
Anna Jensen is a doctoral student at Aalto University, a critic, curator, and visual artist who graduated with a Master of Arts from Aalto University’s Master’s Program in Visual Culture and a Bachelor’s degree in the Department of Aesthetics at the University of Helsinki. Jensen is interested in questions related to the presentation of art and the dialogue between art theory and practice.
Translated with ChatGPT