Tuukka Haapakorpi
Animations
19.7.-11.8.2019
The name of the exhibition refers to the technique of creating a film, image by image. The end result is an illusion of movement and reality created by the frame rate, mass and lighting. The name directs one’s attention to the structures of producing an image. All images we see have been built, even those that we consider to portray reality. Continuity is an illusion that forms in the human mind, as the senses merge together. Also, the choices that we make are based on the illusion of the continuity.
Haapakorpi’s exhibition features videos as well as drawn and painted images. The works deal with the invisible structures underlying decision-making and identities. These structures move us and affect our decision-making.
The theme of the videos is related to one’s personal history and the forming of one’s identity. In his work A Sequence of Self-Portraits (A Flashlight in a Dark Room), Haapakorpi shows scanned self-portraits projected on interior surfaces. Now seen for the first time at Galleria Huuto, the video work is based on a metaphor of consciousness as the beam of a flashlight in a dark room. The beam of light produced by the flashlight is the only view of reality.
The Howling of Rails gets its name from a metaphor in which consciousness is comparable to the sound of a moving train on railway tracks. The sound is the by-product of the movement produced as a result of the actual physical object existing. The video work deals with being between places and the question of identity. What if, instead of one single self, we consisted of many selves and each only knew the place, the beings and their relationships that they grew up with?
The drawn and painted images on display are related to the role-play Haapakorpi has worked on since 2018, taking place in Finland’s alternative futures. The images have been separated from the heroic imagery of role-playing and their structure is made up of missing information and partly recognizable places or shapes.
Tuukka Haapakorpi is a Helsinki-based multidisciplinary artist. He earned his Master of Fine Arts degree from the Academy of Fine Arts at the University of the Arts Helsinki in 2015. Animations is Haapakorpi’s second solo exhibition in Finland. His works have previously been on display, for example, at Myymälä2, Sculptor and the Old Town Hall Gallery as well as at festivals such as Urbanapa and Musiikin aika (Time of Music). Haapakorpi is involved in the field of art and music at an international level and in 2019 he completed the post-master’s course Critical Images at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm.
