I am Emilia Pennanen, a Helsinki based artist working with photography, sculpture and sound. In my artistic work, I try to decentralize the representation of one point perspective in the photographic tradition. After photographing, I develop and print images on variable three dimensional materials. My purpose is to express the fragile relation to truth in photography, as well as the power contained in photography, that can simultaneously objectify and alienate its viewer from the image.
I use soft, hard, living and inanimate materials such as silk and chiffon fabrics, wood, concrete, silicone, plaster and scoby, to finalize photographs into their final sculptural forms. These materials distance the photograph from the moment it is taken and with its hapticity builds a new image. Materiality brings the memory of something seen back to life, it transforms the photography to something living.
My most recent solo exhibition Almost there was held in August 2021 at the V1 Gallery in Espoo, Finland. I was part of Unfold exhibition at the Finnish Museum of Photography in Helsinki, Finland in January–March 2020. Currently, I am finishing my degree of MA in Photography Aalto University School of Art and Design in Helsinki, Finland. I graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from Maryland Institute College of Arts in Baltimore, USA in December 2014.
I am available for commissions & collaborations:
e.a.pennanen(at)gmail.com
CV upon request.
