"Gleam"

pigment-based inkjet print on cardboard, adhesive foil on canvas

From a curious process of play and contradiction

I believe two opposing motives guide our acts. On the one hand, we are pushed towards systems and rules, and on the other lead by our instincts. This mixture of rules and chance makes it all a play – a rehearsal of existence. My work is placed at
the melting point of play and reality.
I work with found objects and fragments of text. Because of my love for poetry, I easily get fascinated by words and sentences. Poetry is a great way to deal with human tragedy. Human tragedy in the context of my work appears in the battle between rationality and uncontrollable desire. In the process of finding balance between the two, humor appears. And humor is what turns tragedy into play.
I collect items by sudden impulse. Found objects often draw my attention to them, as they contain traces of human use. Interpreting an idea and isolating objects from their original function, I discover the usefulness of the insignificant. I may leave the object as I found it or then cut, cover and rearrange it. Photographing the object shifts the emphasis from the thing itself to the idea behind it. It is partly like what painting does to Magritte’s pipe (Ceci n’est pas une pipe, 1929): The object becomes an indication of itself. If I, for instance, would put an object like a rusty saw into frames, I could name it Saw, and that is what it would then be. Photographing, on the contrary, transmutes the object itself into a metaphor. These metaphors are archived thoughts in an endless and curious process of expanding the understanding of human nature, emerged results of text and objects, delicately sealed by the act of photographing.
(Tanja Koljonen)