Toys and play have once been a part of everybody’s life. Hannamari Matikainen does not aim at playing her entire life; for her, childhood is not a separate era in life but a coherent and equal part of any adult. Her themes are not merely nostalgic memories of the past but also important parts of a collective memory – of tradition.
A traditional Russian matryoshka doll offers no surprises. The nesting doll, an object-within-similar-object, is a mother figure whose offspring are smaller and more simplified versions of the mother but otherwise similar. The easily humanized animal figures of Hannamari Matikainen’s matryoshka, however, are by no means the spitting images of their predecessors. The bigger character’s wish for a similar descendant has not been taken into consideration. Whether a new figure is born from the bigger one or a bigger one is based on the small one remains a surprise. An odd number can be seen as a continuum whereas an even number suggests the end of something: one has been perfected by another.
The role of Matikainen’s animal figures remains unclear. The animals have been pictured moments before they realize if it is a positive or negative surprise they have just experienced. The models that include animals from the “World’s Ugliest” competition are easy and safe to call ugly – after all, the figures transform all the negativity into disarmingness which, in turn, creates understanding. Nevertheless, each and every one of these cuties is a potential troublemaker.
Hannamari Matikainen reorganizes her pictures even after they are finished. She extends her technique and questions her own hand by subordinating her monotypes yet again into plates and thus into future pictures.
Krister Gråhn
Contact info:
Hannamari Matikainen
Tel. +358 40 5359021
hannamarim(at)gmail.com
