“That’s All Folks” is an exhibition centred around loss; be that of people, objects, focus or memory. But it also celebrates what can still be found, the residue or traces. The viewer is greeted with paintings, overhead projections and lampshades that splice a morbid fascination with death with a mordant humour. The work gently massages the truth, merging fact with fiction.
In 1928, two commemorative paintings were commissioned of the Santahamina barracks. The show features these two celebrative portraits, discovered in a seldom-used annex of the very building. Sadly it would seem that the artist never got to complete the paintings before his untimely demise but there is a rare elegance and atmosphere in these preliminary sketches.
Being remote from Helsinki, the artist resourcefully drew their inspiration for the paintings from an information brochure for the training school. The first of these depicts the dignified, doughty façade of the barracks early afternoon on a brilliant autumnal day. The second portrays the orderly central hallway, emblazoned in the full brilliance of a glorious morning sun. This reassuring image is set alongside an interesting x-ray of the original artwork revealing details in the underpainting invisible to the human eye.
The soldier’s ladies were not sitting around despondently, idling their time away whilst their husbands were out training rigorously. Accompanying these paintings is some of the ladies’ handiwork – their deft blades cut a number of fascinating stencils, making intricate designs with which to decorate the lampshades that illuminated their homes with delicate silhouettes. A number of these lampshades have been kindly lent to us for this exhibition.
Duncan Butt Juvonen (b.1972) is a British artist who has been based in Finland for the last 7 years. He graduated from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts’ MA programme in 2009. He has had solo exhibitions in two Finnish art museums and the Finnish Cultural Institute (Stockholm). His artworks have been exhibited in 9 countries and are featured in the collections of two Finnish art museums and the Finnish State Art Collection.
