Autumn arrives and the nature lies forgotten, dead. We invite you undreground to explore decaying, numbness, basements, haunting, cycles of life and death, metamorphosis and the macabre. The works in the Marras exhibition blur the border between life and death, which at this time of year is blurred anyway. We approach the scary and unknown borderland through carnivalistic playfulness. At the same time, we test the limits of cartoon expression by expanding the narrative into the exhibition space also in the form of sculptures, projections, animations and sound works.
In our culture, the fear of death manifests as alienation. We idealize youth and yearn for the theoretically attainable immortality through technology. Death is restricted from the circle of life to hospitals and institutions, so that the living do not have to face it. However, the conflicts, warmongering and eco-catastrophes of our time have planted the threat of death in our midst. Life under pressure is heavy: death can also be seen as a savior from pain and suffering, as a rest... but there is no guarantee of rest, because no one knows what awaits us - if anything?
In the works of the exhibition, we explore how we could become closer to death. We see the relationship with death more broadly as part of our culture's relationship with nature: accepting death as an element naturally included in life binds a person inexorably to the cycles of life. Although death has been dealt with in art throughout the ages, it is still a vast, mysterious and difficult theme. Our relationship to death is closely linked to the time and culture in which we live.
The people behind this exhibition are artists with a comic and illustration background. They are united by membership in the contemporary cartoonists' association Kutikuti ry.
Sanna Hukkanen (b. 1978) is a cartoonist from Joensuu. She is crazy about mythical forests, old trees, mushroom picking and magical stories. In her works, she explores the relationship between humans and non-humans through folklore materials and issues of ecological and social justice. Hukkanen believes in the power of comic art as a tool for change and hope.
Pauliina Mäkelä (b. 1980) is a visual artist and illustrator living in Turku. Mäkelä is known for her detailed pencil drawings that waver between the real and the imagined. Dreamlike images often deal with the delicate intermingling of inner and outer worlds, real and imagined, areas of human uncertainty and the fragility of existence.
Hannele Richert (b. 1979) is a cartoonist and translator from Helsinki. She draws on scratchboard and paper with a felt-tip pen, constructs three-dimensional elements and tinkers with small animations. She is interested in the atmosphere of inexplicability, eeriness, premonitions, the circularity and layers of the story. These are often combined with comedy or at least black humor.
Amanda Vähämäki (s.1981) on tiukasti marginaalissa viihtyvä sarjakuvapiirtäjä, kuvittaja ja taiteilija. Hän on julkaissut lukuisia omakustanteita, sarjakuvanovelleja ja neljä sarjakuva-albumia, jotka on käännetty usealle eri kielelle. Vähämäki tunnetaan erityisesti lyijykynäpiirroksistaan ja arkitodellisuuden ja fantasian rajoja raikkaasti hämmentävistä aiheistaan.
Amanda Vähämäki (born 1981) is a cartoonist, illustrator and artist who enjoys being outside the mainstream. She has published numerous self-published works, comic short stories and four comic albums, which have been translated into several different languages. Vähämäki is especially known for her pencil drawings and subjects that refreshingly confuse the boundaries of everyday reality and fantasy.
A down-to-earth welcome to the opening of the exhibition on Tuesday 22 October 2024 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m! We encourage the public to dress with a seriousness appropriate to the November theme and season. Dress code: funeral, macabre, haunting, compost and the like.
The exhibition is supported by Taike -Arts Promotion Centre Finland.
