Sun Drawing on the Skin of a Rock, 2023
6.10.–5.11.2023
Photographic Centre Peri
Turku, Finland
Exhibition documentation video and all exhibition documentation photographs by Anastasia Korpelainen.
Sound piece:
Cavernous water / one day I woke up with a sensation on my scalp / the mouth speaks with a tongue of high pitch bubbles / saline melting
18:24 min
Emilia Pennanen: vocals, piano, lyrics, composition, arrangement, recording
Rasmus Pietilä: bass, water soundscape, composition, arrangement, recording, mixing
2023
On the floor
Sandstone butterfly
plaster, sand
410 x 180 x 10 cm (size varies)
2023
Golden ribbons, turquoise blue and apricot
photographic print on silk, poppy, pine
186 x 70 x 3,5 cm
2023
Cavernous water
cyanotype on silk, photographic print on silk, wool, pine
250 x 150 x 5 cm
2023
Far below the rocks and sky
photographic print on silk, cyanotype on polyester, pine
72 x 42 x 9 cm
2023
Fallingwater
photographic print on silk, cyanotype on silk, rose, pine
197 x 33 x 4 cm
2023
Sun drawing on the skin of a rock
photographic print on silk, pine
Size varies (part I: 250 x 126 x 128 cm, part II: 191,5 x 82 x 78 cm, part III: 138 x 39 x 40 cm)
2023
Sun Drawing on the Skin of a Rock, 2023
The air is thick with salt. The echo of the waves is absorbed within the wind. The salt has dissolved the rock as the sunlight and the sea water press themselves against it. The surface of the rocks is rough, like sucked candy. The skin evaporates and turns into sand. The nails become brittle, until they are transformed into seashells. The mouth blows tall bubbles through the tongue. Eyelids turn transparent, the vision is unbroken.
The exhibition Sun Drawing on the Skin of a Rock is a collection that examines landscape photography. The exhibition consists of photographic sculptures and a soundscape. The photographic sculptures are constructed of photographs printed on canvas with varying techniques in combination with wooden and plaster structures. The artist’s work is informed by curiosity towards landscape photography, its materiality and its perceptible and substantial qualities. The works approach photography as a conduit for presence, touch, and material connections. The works also seek to discover an emotional sense of identification with a vanishing world that is being covered in a searing and almost blindingly bright light, a soft haze, and finally the absence of light: darkness.
Journeys by land on the different coasts of the Atlantic provide the premise for the artist’s work. The photographs which form the basis for the works have been taken e.g. in Portugal and Iceland. Time spent near water has been a part of a corporeal study which has guided the artist towards the three-dimensional shapes of the works. Eventually the sculptures themselves seemingly transform into set pieces depicting places, memories and experiences.