Tapio Tuominen
Tattooed quotations
Galleria Huuto Jätkäsaari 1
19.6–6.7.2014
Where does the name “Tattooed quotations” come from? The exhibition got started from small pencil drawings created through free association. Gradually the size of the drawings increased. The role of a marker also became more important than that of a pencil. Like tattoos, the marker drawings covered the pencil drawings. Later I added colors and speech bubbles with quotations, for example, from literature, philosophy and comic books.
In the Republic dialogue by Plato, Socrates outlines an image of a primitive society, a state of pigs. Life in the state of pigs is selfish and bountiful, which strains the state. As a result of the excessive accumulation of wealth and living beyond one’s means, the natural resources of the state soon ran out. To continue the affluence required land and wealth to be robbed from the neighboring states, which plunged the state of pigs into war. The war expanded because it became expensive to maintain the army. This then required increasingly larger and more powerful armies and so on.
However, the question remains as to whether the state of pigs was so primitive after all in comparison to the countries of our time? Isn’t it so that this is exactly what most of the current countries do, both in the east and west? If countries are so small that they do not have enough power to raid another country, they form governmental and military alliances. Those who try to defend their countries against superior armies are now generally referred to as terrorists. The occupiers who hog the natural resources and cultural treasures, on the other hand, are seen as heroes and liberators. In other words, nothing has changed in 2400 years.
When I was trying to interpret Plato through my own era, pigs and pig-like human characters began to take over my drawings. The dialog I engaged in with my nearly complete works helped me clarify their narrative content. The style of expression I used in my works became stable and more powerful. My exhibition could, therefore, be characterized as an artistic development story in which the experiments with different drawing techniques gradually become intertwined with the rest of my life and lead to a more determined working method in terms of both expression and content.
Tapio Tuominen
Tel. +358 50 3052816, email: tuominentapio(at)elisanet.fi
Opening hours during Midsummer:
Midsummer Eve, Friday 20.6.: Open 12-5 pm.
Midsummer, Saturday 21.6.: Closed
Sunday 22.6.: Open 12-5 pm.
