Camilla Mihkelsoo, Emma Peura

Camilla Mihkelsoo

Elsewhere

At the center of my paintings are people, especially female figures, who can also be seen as some kind of archetypes. The figures live in the painting’s inner world, as if in some intermediate space between conscious and unconscious. In my works, I am dealing with the boundaries between the external and the internal worlds, as well as between the real and the imaginary. The little moments of everyday life are blended with dreams and memories. The name of the exhibition Elsewhere also refers to a human desire to be somewhere else than where she or he is at the moment. Longing for a better place, whether physical, psychological or imaginary.

Camilla Mihkelsoo (born 1978) is currently living and working in Helsinki and Italy. Elsewhere is the second part of her Masters degree thesis. The first part was on display during the Kuvan Kevät 2019 MFA degree exhibition in May. Mihkelsoo has previously studied art at Free art school. She has had solo and group exhibitions in various places, for example in Galleria Ama and Tm-galleria in Helsinki.

Emma Peura

Antaa matkan piirtää - Let The Journey Draw Its Course.

In Lapland, at the upstream of the Luiro River in Sodankylä, the scenery is dominated by a massive body of water. In its place, there used to be forest and bogs, villages and homes. When the Lokka Reservoir, or the “pool”, as the locals call it, was built in 1967 to regulate the volume of water in the Kemijoki power plants, both people and nature had to make room for it. The houses were sold or expropriated. The trees, fields, reindeer pastures and memories became submerged in water.

The exhibition will show works that have been inspired by my expeditions to Lokka. I investigate the history of the reservoir and its societal and human consequences by means of art. I examine my own relationship to nature, recent history of Finland, our native population, the Sámi people, and contemplate the true cost of our standard of living. When I watch the news, I see history repeat itself. For my part, I wish to draw attention to these things through my work.

The process, the interaction between the work and myself, is important to me. I regard art as a medium which I use to make sense of both myself and the world in which I live.

Emma Peura is completing her master’s degree in printmaking at the University of Arts’ Academy of Fine Arts. This exhibition is the second part of her MfA thesis work. The first part was shown at Kuvan Kevät 2019.

www.emmapeura.com