Cliff – House

Exhibition Cliff – House consists of two sets of works, Elementary and The Remnant of Time. Together, the works form an installation-like whole. My painting work is based on different places. The observational work in them highlights varying experiences of the environment.

The works in the Elementary series are multi-layered tempera paintings. There are two places, a house with its surroundings in Paris and a cliff in a natural environment in the Gulf of Halikko, Finland, in which I have worked on the paintings. The larger size of the paintings brings out the bodily sensation, feeling, environment associated with places, taking over the experiencer’s mind and body, which in turn takes the focus away from the viewing event.

Both places represent the temporal strata of both the past and the present. In addition to its interior space, the house is also its outer part. Even if I could not see inside the building, I still feel its inside. The cliff, on the other hand, is not just a wall, but spatial and shapely in accordance with our experience. The cliff has a powerful feature of the significance and memory of the place.

The paintings in the series The Remnant of Time are related to my work in archaeological sites, which mainly have different remains of the original buildings. Thus, the experience of the place turns strongly to the past and conveys how time supports us, moves us forward, gives meaning to the present being, and removes the feeling of separation.

I have studied the meanings of working in a place in my doctoral thesis in artistic research Dimensional – Lived Spatiality. Art of Painting Based on The Environment (2019). The study was based on my artistic project City Places, Paris – Helsinki. At that time, I worked on the project in two similar places, a park and shore area, in two cities. I live and work at the Lallukka’s Artists’ Home and in my rural studio in Halikonlahti.

Anne Sunila

The exhibition has received state funding from The Finnish Heritage Agency.