PHOTOGRAPHIC WORKS – Päivi Setälä

The works are based on the artist’s contradictory relationship with the garden. When retreating to the garden, one imagines they can forget everything, but before realizing it, the truth has infiltrated the crops: seeds do not sprout, rain destroys the columbines, and snails are eating the lettuce. The garden is a battle against time and climate, a fantasy of different dreams. The garden became almost an obsession, something far from a romantic dream.

Everywhere, flowers started to appear. For the work Flower Confessions, Setälä photographed women in floral dresses around Finland. The goal was to identify the flowers in the dress with the subject of the photograph. The identification process turned into a form of confession, as often the dress turned out to mean more to the wearer than just clothing. Does the flower dress carry the lightness of life, or does it?

Sukertarha (Sugar Garden) is an intensely colorful photo series of flowers from the modern Finnish garden, fragile yet powerful plants, whose threatening/uncertain beauty causes a true gardener to be willing to make great sacrifices.

The exhibition also features other floral imagery. Different photographic and video techniques have been used in the works. All the works are from this year. Päivi Setälä is a photographer from Pori. She has participated in group exhibitions with photographs and video works since 1989. Setälä’s images have mostly been related to everyday life, womanhood, landscapes, and local nature. Her works were most recently exhibited at the Iisalmi Camera Biennale last summer. Some of the works displayed there are part of the Mamore work presented at the Swedish School in Pori on November 16, 2001.

Päivi Setälä graduated with a Master’s degree in Philosophy from the Turku University in 1999, majoring in Film and Television Studies and minoring in Art History and Communications. She has worked as a photography teacher at the Satakunta School of Handicrafts and Arts and at Satakunta University of Applied Sciences, as well as a children’s workshop instructor at the Pori Art Museum and various photography workshop leader. She has also illustrated for various magazines and publications.

This text was created with AI assistance