Tatu Tuominen
I Reminisce by the Ray of Light
Galleria Huuto Uudenmaankatu
14.3.–25.3.2007
Laila Kinnunen sings: “I reminisce by the ray of light”. I take hundreds of snapshots a year with my pocket camera. Some of them are instant objects of my nostalgia. Looking at one I know I’ve saved a moment from oblivion, I also know that I’ve lost it forever. The feeling is bittersweet.
The starting point of my works is the snapshots in my photo album. A single snapshot might seem meaningless, but by picking certain pictures for the album we are constructing a coherent narrative of our lives – instead of a series of separate experiences. Our photo albums are displaying our lives as we want to see them or as we want them to be seen. I’m not exhibiting the snapshots themselves but my interpretations of
them. I try to capture the atmosphere of those frozen moments. I paint, sculpt, spray, slash, glue and cast. The meaning and the content of the image change in the process.
Developing new techniques is rewarding. I combine thousands of years old technique of paper cutting with the means of today. I use digital image processing in sketching, paint with spray cans and cast the paper cuttings in a pool of industrial resin.
Viewed from afar my works might resemble a photo or a printed image. By viewing them at an intimate distance the other content of the works is revealed: the feeling of the materials and the trace of hand. I had pleasure in pouring the glossy resin, cutting the fibery Nepalese paper, constructing and sculpting. I hope the viewer could sense some of that pleasure.
Tatu Tuominen, tatu.tuominen(at)kuva.fi, tel. 044-263 1028
Tatu Tuominen (born 1975) is a visual artist from Helsinki who graduated last year from The Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. Tuominen works with painting, printmaking and photography.
