Päivi Allonen, Silja Puranen and Pekka Syrjälä
SOMETHING TO SAY
Galleria Huuto Jätkäsaari 1
25 October – 9 November 2014
Open hours Tue-Sun 12-5pm.
Also on All Saints Day 1.11.2014 Huuto galleries are open at 12-5 pm.
Open on Gallery Wednesday 5.11.2014 at 12-9 pm.
The common theme of the Something to Say exhibition by Päivi Allonen, Silja Puranen and Pekka Syrjälä is the relationship between visual elements and language, words, text or stories. This year the Something to Say exhibition toured from Gallery Napa in Rovaniemi to the Brinkkala Gallery in Turku and then to the Poriginal Gallery in Pori. Now the exhibition is coming to the Huuto gallery in Jätkäsaari, Helsinki. In February 2015 the exhibition will be on display at the Mältinranta Art Center in Tampere. The exhibition is different at each gallery.
Visual artist Päivi Allonen explores everyday phenomena in her works. She deals with an individual’s need to use power and the manifestation thereof. Power has the tendency to increase, reduce and change depending on the surrounding circumstances. Group dynamics, interaction skills and an individual’s desire to be part of a group play a key role in her works. Allonen’s paintings and three-dimensional works have a strong and cohesive visual language regardless of the variation of technique.
Silja Puranen is a storyteller who observes society from a critical perspective. The characters and situations in her works depict the power relationships between humans and their environment. Her newest pieces explore, for example, questions related to the overuse of natural resources, the increasing size of garbage mountains and the ethics and eco-friendliness of food production. Animals play a leading role in the images, particularly pigs with the aim of representing human civilization. Even though the artist’s theme in this exhibition appears to be a gloomier dystopia with regard to the testing of our planet’s capacity, her style of expression does contain some type of twisted humor. Puranen does not preach, she tells stories and gives the audience an opportunity to develop the story further.
Sculptor Pekka Syrjälä’s works are sculptures of words. They often depict a written word and speech, the act of saying something. The abstract meanings of the verbal language interact with the visual language of physical materials and shapes and redefine each other. “By using written words and speech as the basis for my works I want to question their role as passive objects. Perhaps they are independent subjects with a mind of their own and they say what they want to say straight out, without asking for permission. They may flirt and make all kinds of inappropriate suggestions to us.”
We wish to thank the Kone Foundation for supporting the exhibition tour.
Contact:
Päivi Allonen p. 040-8322384, paivi.allonen(a)gmail.com
Silja Puranen p. 050-3064561, silja(a)siljapuranen.com
Pekka Syrjälä p. 050-5016225, pekkasyrjala(a)dnainternet.net
