Sirpa Häkli and Sirkka Tapio
SIRPA HÄKLI
Tabula Rasa
BLANK CANVAS. Philosopher John Locke (1632–1704) argued that a person is born without any concept of shapes or colors, as the mind is like a “white paper, devoid of writing” at birth. According to the empiricist, only experiences and observations shape the mind’s “blank slate” (Latin: tabula rasa). For a painter, such a concept is fascinating, as they literally face a white or base-colored surface at the start of a painting, which they must in some way “fill.” Since painting is primarily about thinking, one must ask themselves each time they begin a work, what to paint, and why. The “canvas” cannot, therefore, be “blank”—though its meaning or lack thereof is only defined by the viewer.
CHALKBOARD. When I created my first “chalkboard paintings” a few years ago, I was particularly intrigued by the relationship between additions (marks and traces) and subtractions (erasures). When washing a chalkboard, partially emerging marks remain visible: lines, smudges, chalk dust—like fading memories or fleeting thoughts—and evidence of handprints, movement, physicality, the process of painting.
COMPROMISES AND CONNECTIONS. The starting point of the series, begun a couple of years ago, lies in the personal: the one striving for perfection must compromise with their own incompleteness, and the one who has accepted their imperfection (perhaps) pays more attention to the connections between things. In these paintings, my thoughts have related to repetition, cycles, interconnectedness, and the whole created by contrasts.
AESTHETICS AND THE ARTIST. The works in this series are based on Thomas Munro’s essay collection Toward Science in Aesthetics (1928/1956). Munro’s article titles, terminology, and contents have both inspired and provoked me to reflect on the concepts of “beauty” and “aesthetic value,” both in the history of art and in my own work. Some of the works are reinterpretations of my own paintings, some are based on key image types in art history, and some are inspired by images I experience as aesthetic or metaphorical, such as technical drawings.
The exhibition is supported by the Arts Promotion Centre, Uusimaa Arts Council.
SIRKKA TAPIO
Time Forms – Part 3: “Contour Lines”
The theme of my Time Forms exhibition series is the similarities between the 17th-century Baroque’s theatrical, overflowing movement and the visual phenomena of contemporary urban narcissism. For example, Velázquez’s stage-like royal portraits with their lavish costumes and street fashion trends or graffiti art momentarily find common ground.
I live in a district of Helsinki where the everyday life of society, multiculturalism, and youth pulse quite freely. Behind my images, there is a sense of sociology and the messages, gestures, and traces we leave in public spaces, our typical need to mark a place, underline personality, be noticed, or perhaps be anarchistic.
In my paintings, I don’t document these messages and traces, but instead, I utilize their attitude and form, simplifying street sociological observations into a refined design. Some of the original, even glaring, observations I’ve simplified by reducing colors or questioning the sense of space in order to better highlight a single, sometimes confusing, shape or rhythm.
My works are acrylic and oil paintings on canvas from 2013 to 2015.
The first part of the Time Forms exhibition series was my solo exhibition at Galleria Kulma in Lahti in 2014, and the second part was in April 2015 at Galleria Johan S in Helsinki.
Translated with ChatGPT