ZEITMASS – Anni Terävä

My speed slows down. I remain staring. Maybe something blue. Bluish. I turn the fabric around. Clearly too heavy, brown. I step back. I can’t understand what it is. I can’t see it. It’s somehow too restless, scattered. It has too much and too little. I step even further back. I tilt my head from side to side. One eye closed. The beam of light from outside blinds me. The stain on the floor prevents me from seeing. I cover it. Maybe now? It needs small and tight movement, intensity. I tape the fabric over the fluorescent tube. How can anyone see anything in this light? My head is buzzing. I think we need to do something about this yellow, yes, yes, maybe it is very ugly now, yes. I talk to myself. Why in English? Why always in English? Did it really have to be done so recklessly that it became this incredibly ugly? That’s what happens when you try to be spontaneous. I add grey. I subtract grey. I add grey, I subtract grey. I turn the fabric around. Ok, maybe my problem isn’t grey after all. I remember a comment I got about the painting: “Why did you make it so ugly?” Yeah, why? I laugh. On the other hand: “Ugly painting must be defended,” said another. When should you defend, and when should you destroy?

The painting is rhythms. I try to find a melody in the cacophony. My tempo is fluctuating.

Anni Terävä (b. 1981) is a Helsinki-based visual artist working in painting, photography, and video. Her work addresses themes related to the body, physicality, physical limitations, non-verbal communication between people, and body language. Terävä graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Photography from Kent Institute of Art and Design, UK, in 2006 and as a painter from the Free Art School in 2016.