Vītālis ∼ luminous oval, is a spatial visual delight bursting with vitality, fire and whispering, where repetition and interludes rhythmically intertwine. A stream of serigraphy twists the core and invites other forms of artistic representation to allegorical composition. Just a slight breeze and the meaning of the words gets blurry.
I return to a familiar exhibition space after more than twenty years, I repeat. The last time I pressed pause. Now the movement is allowed to flow, and I with it. Vītālis, vitality, is a work that takes shape in space and time. The gallery is a momentary frame within the elements carried inside to be arranged for viewing. In the Turku Art Hall is displayed the premiere of a new installation, its first rhythm, the first unruly play. Hand-printed ornaments on paper rolls drape and glow, their thematics fluctuate recklessly, as does a full life. Vītālis is self-evolved, it has been borrowing my hands surreptitiously for about five years and I will let it to complete as long as it allows, for no vitality has an ending, no point determined by (wo)man. Vītālis is eternal waving sans eras.
The fruits of the equatorial sun exude light. Weight is the promise of sweetness. Pineapple is pale yellow, the mango dark. The North is different, depth arises from grooves. I explore repetition and its relationship to specific moments. Vītālis lends me her mouth, I taste multiplicity. I collect and frame seeds, grow stems, sculpt forms, paint, record. The variations in the traces of life interest the graphic artist. I look for the intersections of techniques the deep red condensation and its golden light, the light of the oval.
The works in the exhibition have taken shape over the last few years in Turku and around the world in everyday performative and ritualistic repetitions, which each of them takes us closer to the core of the understanding of life. Particularly significant for the integrality of the work has been last winter, the time lived in Villa Karo, under the luminous light of Benin.
Sirkku Ketola (b.1973) is a contemporary printmaker from Turku, Finland, who studies repetition and the resulting variation as part of the code of life and the beauty of diversity. She is a civilized savage who slows down the digital image stream through handicraft methods, trying to understand the relationship between human rhythm and matter. The impact of the body on the image, and vice versa, never desists to fascinate her. Ketola earned her Master of Fine Arts degree from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki, and she has taken part in numerous Finnish and international projects and exhibitions. Ketola’s long-term project A Body Called Paula (2017-2027) has made her an internationally renowned printmaker.
The exhibition been supported by the Arts Promotion Centre Finland.
For more information: www.instagram.com/sirkkuketola / www.sirkkuketola.com
The exhibition is on display in Iso Galleria, Kunsthalle Turku 6.9.-27.10.2024 Wed-Fri 12-18, Sat-Sun 12-16
Address: Vanha Suurtori 5, Turku
