ERÄÄNÄ PÄIVÄNÄ HERÄTÄ / WAKE UP ONE DAY – Sanna Halme

One day, I woke up and realized that I am alive. I realized this through the death of a loved one, cliché and predictably. This event, which deeply affected me, expanded to signify a more general question of what it means to be human, what it means to be alive, and how to spend one’s time.

I have spent my time here and there, thoughtlessly. I have lived a serious life, I have lived a funny and strange, unconventional life. There is so much in life. Life is a comic-tragic stage. Anything is possible, especially dreams, especially faith.

In this exhibition, I have condensed some thoughts, or perhaps more accurately, questions on a subject that is difficult to define in one sentence: the metamorphoses of life, continuous contradictions, ongoing inner battles. The exhibition consists of heads. Speaking heads, silent heads. We all struggle to go somewhere; does the head stay above water? Who carries whose head? The head can limit. Sometimes, it’s better just to lay one’s head on the table and rest. Life is a comic-tragic stage, the music box plays sad music, and the beggar gives gold to the passersby.

All of the works in the exhibition are painted almost exclusively using a palette knife, without a brush. The palette knife leaves a rough mark of life. Art is philosophy. In art, what matters most is feeling.
What do you feel? Do I know you, the viewer, who has just arrived at these paintings today?

Translated with ChatGPT