Gábor Arion Kudász
Artist Feature
Every week an artist is featured whose single image was published by Der Greif. The Feature shows the image in the original context of the series.
Maija Annikki Savolainen - It was only when I saw a picture of snow or of trees that they were endowed with meaning
Mar 09, 2016
This quote from Karl-Ove Knausgårds book, My Struggle: book 2 depicts the author’s desire to be able to express his feelings through painting. Upon first reading, his ideal notion of a painter as the ultimate interpreter of feelings (drawn from the nature) seems touching – almost naive. Read again, however, I have to admit that I have encountered the same desire. For example, often when I walk by the sea and observe the sunset or notice the morning mist cover the park on my way to work, I take out my phone to photograph the view before even having really looked at it. In a moment of amazement my first reaction is not to enjoy what I see, but to capture it with a camera. A photograph is not, of course, a painting. Knausgård describes the art form of painting for a reason. It is not a photographer that he wants to be, but a painter in a traditional way – with a brush, colors and a canvas. Evidently a painting has a power of expression which exceeds that of a photograph. What that is that difference? This is the core question of my photographic work. I am curious to discover what kind of a photograph would touch the viewer in the same way as a painting does? If painterly expression is defined by the brush strokes on canvas, photographic expression is defined by the light that draws the image visible on the photosensitive surface. This brings the materiality of light into question. When photographing, I look at the sunlight and try to find ways to use it in a painterly way. I try to seize a moment where sunlight becomes an active agent in my photographs. My aim is to express light in such a way that the subject becomes secondary to the viewer and the substance of light becomes the focal point — as if light was as tangible for my camera as paint is for a painter’s brush.
Artist Blog
The blog of Der Greif is written entirely by the artists who have been invited to doing an Artist-Feature. Every week, we have a different author.
Published in:
»Guest-Room Timothy Persons«
White Nights
Mar 14, 2016 - Maija Savolainen
Due to a lucky coincidence in 2015 I got a chance to create a site-specific installation piece in the Alte Markthalle in the center of Basel. I worked in collaboration with Ingrid Magnusson/Maringi Studio and Benedikt Wyss/Deli Projects. Since Ingrid is from Sweden, we wanted to work in aspects of scandinavian life and bring the white midsummer nights of the north to the central europe. It is said that sometimes, when waiting and standing very still in the forest in the midsummer night, the lights of the night appear. They dance in the air between the trees and rocks and seem to be calling you to follow them. Some stories describe how these lights reveal the hidden treasures of the forest, while others warn of those who have disappeared after following this ephemeral glow. The light installation we built in Alte Markthalle was visible only on clear, sunny days. Patience was required to see the installation, as the sun needed to be in exactly right position. Late morning and early afternoon were the best hours to see the lights that appeared on the dome-like roof of the Markthalle. They were created by sun hitting a hidden reflective structure and they remained visible on the walls for just a few minutes until sunlight moved and the reflections faded slowly away. Installation was up during the summer 2015
1/10 When the Sense of Belonging is Bound to a System of Movement
2/10 When the Sense of Belonging is Bound to a System of Movement
3/10 When the Sense of Belonging is Bound to a System of Movement
4/10 When the Sense of Belonging is Bound to a System of Movement
5/10 When the Sense of Belonging is Bound to a System of Movement
6/10 When the Sense of Belonging is Bound to a System of Movement
7/10 When the Sense of Belonging is Bound to a System of Movement
8/10 When the Sense of Belonging is Bound to a System of Movement
9/10 When the Sense of Belonging is Bound to a System of Movement
10/10 When the Sense of Belonging is Bound to a System of Movement
When the Sense of Belonging is Bound to a System of Movement
Mar 13, 2016 - Maija Savolainen
In the beginning of year 2011 I was in the second year of my photography studies. I had learned that photography is all about stopping time; no matter what you see in a photograph, it’s always a slice of time, frozen on a flat surface. This allows us to observe it more completely, to grasp this moment of time and look at it closely. In spring it feels like time flies – changes in nature are happening in front of your eyes so quickly that they flee from your sight before you even notice them. I wanted to pause time, to stay in one day of spring to be able to observe those changes better. I left on a ten-day-travel leaving from latitude 49° N to end up to 26° 24’ N. I was meant to travel each day a number of kilometers towards south so that the length of the day would always remain the same, 12h 24min 7s. This was my way of stopping time. Of course things don’t go as you plan. I never reached the point where I was meant to start my travel. In the end I was so tired of following my schedule that I decided to give up and drive off the route to stay in one location for the remainder of my trip. This book is a story about failures that you encounter when your goal is to take control over the sun. Book is available at Kehrer Verlag's distributors.
Päivikki Alaräihä
Mar 12, 2016 - Maija Savolainen
If I was able to paint, I would like to paint like Päivikki. http://paivikkialaraiha.com
Drifting clouds
Mar 11, 2016 - Maija Savolainen
When photographing, I often use a sheet of white paper to show the placement and the color of light in the picture. With the help of the paper it is also possible to sculpt the light as if it were tangible material. I can mold the same patterns of light and shadow onto the image, in the way that slowly drifting clouds draw on a landscape of rolling hills and fields on a clear day in the early days of spring.
1/8 The Matter of Light and Fuchsia gotenborg 1
2/8 The Matter of Light and Fuchsia gotenborg 2
3/8 The Matter of Light and Fuchsia gotenborg 3
4/8 The Matter of Light and Fuchsia gotenborg 4
5/8 The Matter of Light and Fuchsia gotenborg 5
6/8 The Matter of Light and Fuchsia gotenborg 6
7/8 The Matter of Light and Fuchsia gotenborg 7
8/8 The Matter of Light and Fuchsia gotenborg 8
The Matter of light and Fuchsia gotenborg
Mar 10, 2016 - Maija Savolainen
In February I had a show in Helsinki (www.hippolyte.fi). The weather this time of the year is often cloudy and days are still quite short. This year there hasn’t been too much snow which makes the season even darker. When I started to plan the show, I thought it would be nice to transform the exhibition space so that it was the opposite of the depressing winter weather outdoors. To accomplish this, I used Fuchsia seedlings and LED lights Green plants have different responses to different wavebands of sunlight. I contacted biologist Pedro Aphalo at the University of Helsinki; he and his colleagues Titta Kotilainen and Sari Siipola introduced me to the basics of photobiology. In the exhibition space I set an experiment with seedlings of Fuchsia gotenborg and three different light treatments: one set of plants exposed to white light, another to blue and red light, and third to white and far red light. The aim of the installation was to show how the quality and quantity of sunlight determine the shape and color of a plant in a similar way that light determines what becomes visible in a photograph. In other words, in a photograph the nature of the light determines what is visible in a picture and how. In this same way, the nature of sunlight determines the visual appearance of plants.