Timo Aho, Sampsa Pirtola, Nora Sederlöf

Timo Aho: Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost is an installation of light sculptures that also can be experienced from outside of the gallery space during the night time. In the exhibition, imagination, dreams, memories and reality mesh together. The space can be experienced, but it can simultaneously be viewed as a sort of non-place – an entanglement of imagination, reality and built environment.

The exhibition is inspired by urban space, communication, light and the loss of connection to something that we are a part of. The installation exposes the conscious choice where paradise is only a mental image run over by our collective neglect.

About the artist

Timo Aho (b. 1980, Finland) works with site-specific installation, sculpture and intervention, using a wide range of materials and media, often including ephemeral elements such as light and air. In his art, Aho investigates our environment through societal structures and belief systems, studying the fine line between reality and fiction, and disentangling these topics with subtle gestures.

Since 2018, Timo Aho and Pekka Niittyvirta have collaborated in international art projects dealing with climate change. Their collaborative work Lines is exhibited at the moment in Turku City Art Museum WAM, at Uncertain Horizon exhibition. Their online based work Coastline Paradox will be presented in UN:s SDG Festival of Action, opening by the end of March.

Aho has exhibited in both, solo and group shows in Finland and internationally. Recent exhibitions include: ARS Electronica - Paris 2020, Untitled Art - (Monuments Programme) Miami 2019, VS Gallery - Fiskars 2019, Sandstorm - Yyteri 2019, Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum & Art Centre - North Uist 2018, Agora - Amsterdam 2018, The Royal Scottish Academy - Edinburgh 2017 and Cleland Lane Arches – Glasgow 2016.

Aho graduated in 2016 from The Glasgow School of Art, where he studied sculpture and environmental art. He is completing his MFA studies at The Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. Paradise Lost is the second part of his MFA degree work.

timoaho.org
Online Project
Instagram: @timo_mo

Sampsa Pirtola: Mineral Strata of Time and Visions in Video

We are slowly moving towards a situation where nearly every human being is a potential videographer through the accessibility of phones and other technology. Video is produced at an estimated hundreds of millions of hours a year, so our era is more accurately documented than any of the previous ones - but what of all these layers of time remains?

The term video comes from the Latin meaning: I see. After we have looked through the viewfinder or a camera screen, can we better see what is happening around us or within ourselves?

The video compilation mainly shows videos I have shot myself during the last 20 years, but the main focus is on the last two years. Although each individual video is an independent work of its own, there are poetic, thematic and other intersections between them. Video lengths range from a few seconds to a few minutes.

Appropriately with the video compilation I shot with semi-cheap and low-end cameras, I work on how every person can be a potential seer - that is, a videographer.

About the artist

Sampsa Pirtola (b. 1982) is a Helsinki-based visual artist and producer. His public production consists mainly of multi-art performances and video works. He has studied e.g. At the Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki and the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts (Kungliga Konsthögskolan).

Pirtola has performed his art in various parts of Europe as well as in the United States and Asia.

www.sampsapirtola.com

Nora Sederlöf: Light blue arc

The exhibition is abundant. It contains six large sculptures and eight smaller ones, one textile relief, and three woodworks. Most pieces are mainly metallic structures cowered with textile. The exhibition also contains pieces in which I have used fake hair.

One of the themes of the exhibition is gravity. The work is set on the walls and the ceiling. They defy the laws of physics by seeming heavy, when in fact, they are relatively light. In some of the works, I have been using fabric. The laces drain from the sculptures.

Besides the presence of gravity, the work is about color, form, material, and structure. The pieces exploit the empty space between the structures of the sculptures. The empty space between is as important as the iron wires.

About the artist

Nora Sederlöf (b. 1983) is a sculptor finishing a MFA degree at the Academy of Fine Arts and has previously studied in the program of Fine Arts at Lahti University and fashion studies at Aalto University. Sederlöf tells that she “got lost in the world of fashion for many years”, decided to stop doing anything related to clothing and fashion and started to make art again. “I felt relief, happiness, and joy.”

As an artist Sederlöf’s strength is in modifying materials. The exhibition Light blue arc is a process where Sederlöf has permitted herself to focus on form, color, composition and structure rather than the conceptual thinking. Sederlöf tells that you don’t have to understand the pieces of work - you can just see them as they are.