Porvoon Taidehalli
Sasha Huber & Petri Saarikko
Poissaolo | Absence
It is customary to value things that exist, since they are sensorily experienced and defined as something. The nature of otherness involves the possibility of shaping those things
The exhibition features works by two artists – paintings by Petri Saarikko and sculptures by Sasha Huber.
Mindmap | Mielenkartta
The paintings, titled Mindmaps, have been created by hand and depict the imminence and absence of light and colour. Their colour tones can alternate between daylight and darkness.
In darkness Petri Saarikko’s roughly painted, light-absorbing pigment-colour fields are transformed into glowing fields of light.
When the painting surfaces are illuminated in the darkness, shimmering, slowly changing, vanishing hues form on their surfaces. Visible daylight returns the paintings to their conventionally interpreted state. At the same time, they are charged with that daylight, shining once again in the darkness.
“For me, what I perceive is largely based on tangible visible presence. And yet, I am fascinated by what happens concretely in the colours and in the viewer beyond what is seen. For me, luminescence opens up the capacity to depict the darkness within. The vivid, abstract nature of my working process frees me to seek out the multiplicity of perceptions.
“For me, painting is a gateway to the experience of otherness. In place of the predominance of visible light, I want to emphasize the silenced otherness that springs from darkness. The reflective nature of light and the light-absorbing nature of darkness complement each other.
“The twin nature of light and darkness – interpreted as opposites – is allowed to occur in my works together, at the same time, in the same or a parallel time and place. For me, separating these two liminal forces that are supposedly opposites is an interpretative illusion: what I do not see may be present, and what I see and experience may be constantly changing its meaning.”
Thread | Elämänlanka
The Thread of Life is a vine-like, solid-wood sculpture shot into the core of a heartwood beam running across the whole wall. The surface of the stapled, silverleaf pattern created by Sasha Huber on the surface of the work reflects the surrounding space. The sculpture’s continuous, planar, shelf-like structure looks like a horizon that underpins and supports a kind of emptiness.
“The thread of life mirrors a journey through the decades, alone and with others. The massive-wood, shelf-like structure made up of several parts supports both itself and the light reflected from its surface. It was inspired by the idea of a deadline. The word was originally used to describe the moat around a prison, crossing it being punishable by death. For me, working with staples means identifying the wounds caused by often-silenced acts and stitching them back together.”
What we see and experience is all there is. Or is it?
