Paola Fernanda Guzmán Figueroa, Maisa Majakka, Hannele Richert, Katie Shannon, Virpi Stjerna
THE TIDE OF FORGETTING AND REMEMBERING
curated by Athanasía Aarniosuo
DECEMBER 7–29, 2024
Opening on Thursday December 5th, at 5–8 PM
Open Tue–Sun 11 AM–6 PM
the gallery will remain closed on the 24th, 25th, and 26th of December
Sitting in a café in central Helsinki, Virpi is showing Athanasía her newest work, a series of photographs portraying seemingly ordinary moments. A windowsill, a close-up of a face, an inner courtyard. Athanasía starts crying, doesn’t quite understand her emotional response.
Moments later, she remembers. The courtyard in one of the photos looks almost identical to one she often looked at years ago, through the window of the small apartment of a then boyfriend, one she has not thought of in two decades. With recognising the memory, a wave of fragments of the past starts forming. She decides to ride on it.
The exhibition The Tide of Forgetting and Remembering, curated by Athanasía Aarniosuo, brings together five artists: Paola Fernanda Guzmán Figueroa, Maisa Majakka, Hannele Richert, Katie Shannon, and Virpi Stjerna. During the process of preparing the exhibition, the group met several times; they drank coffee, told each other stories, remembered what parties felt like in one’s youth, realised they had more in common than they originally knew, laughed a lot, and cried, too.
The resulting exhibition deals with how one’s own nostalgic memories are often re-lived through popular culture, the significance of sharing memories, and the formation of communities through a shared past. The artists explore different ways in which pop nostalgia is expressed visually and textually, and share their stories through the use of nostalgic media: analogue film, installations incorporating vintage landline phones and television sets, hand-crafted and hand-drawn artworks.
Each artist has a story to tell.
In the installation she has created for the exhibition, Guzmán Figueroa draws on her memories of her traditional 15th birthday party in Colombia. She has used photographs and video footage of the event as well as the dress she designed for the party as source material. The themes of her work include pop music, nostalgia, family history and the traditions of her home country.
Majakka's new works draw on girl culture from the 90s to the present day. The works are inspired by the artist's own teenage experiences, the misogyny of the late 90s and early 00s, friendship between girls, and girls' self-destruction related to, for example, substance abuse and sexuality.
Richert approaches the subject of pop nostalgia through the use of CRT television, in order to re-create and distort the viewing experience of the 1990s (especially the police series Prime Suspect and David Lynch's television series On the Air and Twin Peaks).
The idea behind Shannon's installation is a distorted memory of Glasgow's Vic bar, the floor of which resembles the floor of the Oksasenkatu gallery. The time code shifts; powering ‘the girl(s) on Art School floor’ within a new narrative setting. Shannon transfers her experience as a DJ, performer and bar worker to the exhibition space.
Stjerna's contribution to the exhibition consists of photographs taken in 2009, combined with song lyrics. In finding the old photographs, Stjerna experienced a joy similar to the one felt upon reconnecting with an old friend. The specks of dust on the surface of the original negatives, like traces of memories, were preserved in the digital reproductions. The work brings together depictions of melancholy, friends, music, memories, and the tolerance and gradual love of imperfection.
Artists’ websites: