STATE OF CHANGE – PART III, paintings – Heli Huotala

My solo exhibition State of Change – part III is the conclusion of a series of three solo exhibitions. The first part was displayed at Forssa Museum’s Galleria Molet in the fall of 2020, and the second part at Galleria Uusikuva in Kotka in early 2021. The exhibition collection has been slightly different in each show, always including new paintings that were exhibited for the first time. The paintings in the exhibition are oil and acrylic on canvas, created between 2019 and 2021.

The starting points for the works in the exhibition are climate change and related phenomena. Nature and the entire world are in a constant state of change, with the pace seemingly accelerating. The warming of the climate, which threatens biodiversity and the future of the entire planet, the pollution of nature, lakes, and seas, and increasingly intense weather phenomena have already led to worsening natural disasters. Much of the damage caused to animal and plant species is irreversible. The climate crisis is a real threat to all life on Earth, and it is important to consider not only the present but also the future world. Every choice and even small practical climate actions have a significant impact. It remains to be seen how the world will change and what the consequences will be for future generations.

My artistic work is based on a dialogue between intuition and deliberation. I use a visual image I have seen or literary material I have read as the starting point for a painting. I work on the starting point by combining pieces of different memories and imaginations, creating non-places and non-events in the painting. During the painting process, one can travel in the imagination to the past or present or glimpse possible future scenarios – whether utopian, dystopian, or post-apocalyptic.

Thank you to the Arts Promotion Centre Finland for supporting my artistic work.

Translated with Copilot