SURFACE CURRENTS – Jyri Ala-Ruona
The thematic focal point of the exhibition is directed towards the surface of painting. The works refer to objects and surfaces that transmit or regulate various energies and flows, as well as to imprints and displays. These themes are underpinned by my personal history and interest in examining painting and energy consumption as manifestations of neurosis.
For example, a ceramic stove serves as a recognizable, everyday visual starting point, evoking images of heating and cooking, but also of burning and boiling over. A pot placed on an induction stove must be made of magnetic material for heat to transfer into its contents. In this way, the paintings are compared to surfaces that transmit energy. The formation of a magnetic field—that is, how viewers react to or are influenced by the paintings—derives from their own history and motivations. How can one make the surface flow?
A foot revealed from beneath the imprint of a concrete slab or the visual elements in paintings referencing stoves flatten onto the surface. The images suggest an excess of energy, its wastefulness, and especially desires shaped by fossil fuels. These impossible, borrowed, and polished representations from photographs produce a contradictory object. The erasure of painterly marks inevitably shifts attention towards ambiguous areas, mistakes, and consequently to the materiality and objecthood of the paintings. These painterly methods, with their contrasts, express for me an ongoing dialogue between the superficiality and window-like quality of paintings. At the same time, they hint at neurotic energy and slow, inefficient time, which I harness to shape surfaces and dwell on the aforementioned themes.
Jyri Ala-Ruona (b. 1986) is a visual artist living and working in Helsinki. He graduated from the Lahti Institute of Fine Arts and the Academy of Fine Arts. Ala-Ruona’s work focuses primarily on painting.
His works are included in the collections of, among others, the Espoo Museum of Modern Art EMMA and the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa HUS.
The exhibition is supported by Kauno ry.