Miira Tonteri
It Was Always Summer in Grandma’s Garden
15 August–8 September 2024
My grandma had a big garden. For me, the garden represented my grandma. It was like her self-portrait – an embracing and evergreen paradise.
Childhood summers at grandma’s house felt never-ending. I remember the garden vividly – the smell, the flowers swaying in the wind, the grass under my feet and the feeling of light. But when I try to grasp these memories, examine them and transfer them onto paper, they elude my touch. I can no longer return to the garden, time has passed and my grandma only exists in my memories.
The exhibition features works created using various techniques, through which I try to recreate my grandma’s garden based on my vague childhood memories. In my works, I explore layers of time, sorrow and loss and intergenerational dialogue through nature, where moments colored by a child’s imagination create connections between reality and memories. The garden reflects the reality of my memories. They move, expand, constantly change and, at the same time, are timeless. One reality develops into another as my private memories become part of the collective consciousness, other people’s experiences and memories.
In my attempt to return to my childhood memories, time changes and the garden turns into an abstract fairytale land where a short row of raspberry bushes grows into an enormous maze, trees sing and summer lasts forever.
Miira Sapna Selene Tonteri (b. 1990) is a Finnish-Mauritian artist based in Helsinki. Tonteri earned a bachelor’s degree in animation at the Turku Arts Academy in 2016 and will complete her Master of Arts studies at Aalto University in 2025.
Tonteri mainly works with hand-drawn animations and animated video installations mixed with a touch of media art. In her works, she explores the layers, integrations and clashes between nature and technology and between fairy tales, dreams and reality.
Thank you
Aalto University
Contact information
miira.tonteri (at) live.fi
www.miiratonteri.com
