Life in Circle – Wall Sculpture and Painting Series, Anu Halmesmaa
The 2016 exhibition series will challenge the concept of permanence in my work and within myself, with each individual part of the series transforming the body of work into something new.
In my mind, I see an image, a painting, which I try to reimagine as a three-dimensional world with every exhibition. I have always had a desire to immerse myself in the paintings I see. With the help of imagination, I have sat on flower meadows created by great painters, feeling the warmth of the sun on my face, touched the face of a suffering Christ figure, and felt sorrow and great forgiveness, played with mischievous forest creatures, and drunk sparkling wine offered by cherubs. I have experienced great adventures in my imagination.
And yet, I have always wanted something more. I want to create and offer the viewer this imaginative experience as a physical one. I want to give a little more, the part that my inner self has been missing. I want to create a holistic experiential space where the viewer can finally step inside the image, the artwork, which comes to life the deeper one enters.
In the visual language of my world, I use the circle shape as a recurring form and theme. The circle, as a starting point, contains everything for me; the beginning and the end, the cycle, and the constant change in life, existence, in ourselves, and in everything. My individual works are like mandalas, which contain wishes and a desire to let go of the excessive control of life. I realize this in my art in the opposite way, clinging to the colors, glazes, and strong presence of my works, trying to make this moment permanent. I fight windmills. With each exhibition, I try to overcome my personal fear of change. And I hope that my struggle, the world I build, will reflect my experience to the viewer, offering each person a personal experience of this moment and the time we are in right now.
The Poriginal exhibition opens my world and the exhibition series and gives hints of what is to come. It is the first step in the birth and creation of my world. The exhibition will consist of individual works and series, in which some of the pieces will be combined with wall paintings.
Anu Halmesmaa (born 1981) is a visual artist from Turku, who works with sculpture, painting, and installation. In her works, Halmesmaa explores overcoming her own fears and growing stronger and better as a person through that process. Succeeding and failing, seriously and with humor, eventually hiding beneath the layers she creates under pressure. She builds a perfect whole piece by piece and invites the viewer to step inside her layered imaginative world.
Halmesmaa graduated from Turku University of Applied Sciences (Turun piirustuskoulu) in 2006 and earned her Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki in 2010. The Life in Circle exhibition series will be presented in 2016 at Poriginal Gallery, as well as in an evolving form at Huuto Gallery in Helsinki in July–August and Galleria Joella in Turku in September.
Translated with ChatGPT