-
SILJA RANTANEN
TESSERAE │ 11 FEB - 14 MAR 2021 -
THE SPATIAL ORGANISATION OF THE WORLD
SILJA RANTANEN
My mother, textile artist Kirsti Rantanen (1930–2020), spent several decades as a teacher of textile print design at the University of Art and Design Helsinki. When I was a child, she showed me how to draw on a report, that is, how to prepare an ornamental surface design by means of repeating patterns. The report constitutes a repetitive pattern in the design. In 1974, I was introduced to a similar three-dimensional concept when I took an introductory course in architecture. Markku Komonen, a 29-year-old architect, asked the students to turn drinking straws into geometric spatial objects, such as icosahedras, which form a continuous stretch in space.
In both cases, in the painting and on the paper, the boundaries of the rectangular form are broken and lose their significance. The repetitive pattern continues along its path to China, Jupiter, all the way to infinity. The work is a slice cut from space, a sample of the temporal organisation of the universe. This type of design was referred to as all-over in the fine art scene of the 1970s. The works included in the Tesserae exhibition continue this tradition. We are the ones who decide whether the universe is a formless blob or if it has a structure. -
inspiration behind the exhibition tesserae
Silja Rantanen, narration Aleksandra Oilinki, concept, video & translations Tuomas Paavola, audio post production Jussi Tiainen, photos of the artworks -
Silja Rantanen talks about mosaics and the sources of inspiration behind her work
-
-
"When I say I get inspired by figurative art, this means that it leaves an imprint in my mind.
It is something that I have seen many times repeatedly and in a little different light or during different hours of the day. And then, when it has been sufficiently printed in my mind so that it has simplified, it becomes a sort of a symbol. These figurative motifs that have interested me so much and that I have admired, they turn into simple geometric figures that for most people indeed can seem abstract."
-
-
Lifelines
series -
Photo: Georg Grotenfelt
Silja Rantanen
Silja Rantanen is one of our most renowned artists. She is the recipient of several significant art awards, as well as the Pro Finlandia medal, and she is also Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland. Rantanen has represented Finland at the Venice Biennale, and she has been named Artist of the Year at the Helsinki Festival. She has been an Artist Professor, and has worked as Professor at the Kungliga Konsthögskolan in Stockholm and the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. In 2011, Sara Hildén Art Museum organised a retrospective of Rantanen's works. Her doctoral thesis was approved at the Academy of Fine Arts of the University of the Arts Helsinki in 2014.
Integrating art into architecture is one of the leading ideas in Silja Rantanen's practice, and she has produced a number of commissioned public works in Finland, Sweden, and Germany. Mosaic works are almost always regarded as architectural elements, and this is probably one of the reasons why Rantanen has become interested in this particular art form.
