Bad Idea and Other Works , 2003–2006

This collection of works involve simple, and even childlike forms that are used as humorous conceptual ideas. Usually a bad idea can actually be the best idea to work with. Sometimes the greatest ideas can be too conservative to be seen as important. In this body of work I deliberately tried to use the worst idea I had.
This body of work includes painting (acrylic and oil) on canvar, collage works, object installations and photographs. These works have been exhibited in various exhibitions between 2003 and 2007. Many of the works now belong to private and public collections.

The Bad Idea and Other Works

LAST SHOWN AT GALLERY MANIA, TAMPERE 2006

For the early 2000’s, I explored playful ways of presentation. A slow movement towards less media-specific, conceptually influenced work could characterize my work back then. The process of my artwork often included a great deal of play and although I was using several mediums, painting, collage, installation and photographs, I did always work around the same concepts. This very loosely gathered set of works deals with power and what kind of influence the use of power and control has on the citizens of the community. The work seems visually amusing, but it deals with serious problems. This body of work deals with contradictions. Contrasts, surprise and irony are essential elements in this work.

This body of work “Bad Ideas and other works” is based on a conception that the spontaneous ideas are in most cases psychotic, indecent or ordinary. I was deliberately trying to choose a starting point, which seemed doubtful. These choices created a process, where surprise and self-embarrassments where not avoided. These elements where used as an option. The use of photographs as a tool of discipline and classification was the basis for many of my work involving photographic elements. The basis for my paintings was the primitive aspect of painting as a way to depicting abstract ideas.

The process of making art is like a journey for me. I start to work with a conceptual idea, but I end up in thoroughly different place where was I going at the first place. As Harold Pinter beautifully phrased it in his Nobel lecture: “Our beginnings never know our ends”. I think the actual destination is not as important as the journey itself. The travel itself changes our perception of the destination and when we get there, it does not seem as important, than we thought it would be. I like to think this as an organic process of fortune and misfortune, in which failure is not a problem. Possibility of failure is considered as an option.

This body of work includes painting (acrylic and oil) on canvar, collage works, object installations and photographs. These works have been exhibited in various exhibitions between 2003 and 2007. Many of the works now belong to private and public collections.