Maria Erikson, Risako Yamanoi

Maria Erikson: Borderspace

Engagement and contact are central Maria Erikson's work. With the focus on materiality and materials as sets of relationships, she investigates visible and non-visible relations that are produced by the gestures between them. Through wear, pressure, friction and re-use she explores their jointness and indifferences, bodiliness and ability to inhabit shared space.

Borderspace is the second part of Maria Erikson's MFA thesis project, first part of the work Two Bodies was on display during Kuvan Kevät Degree Exhibition 04.05-2.06.2019 at Exhibition Laboratory, Helsinki.

Maria Erikson (b. 1985, Estonia) is currently living and working in Helsinki Finland where she is pursuing an MFA degree in printmaking study area from the Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki. Her most recent exhibitions include a group show at Kungsbacka Art at Hall, Nordic Print Triennial at Gallery Sander in Sweden, Language of Belonging at Exhibition Laboratory, Helsinki. Her works are represented in the collections of Swedish Art Council, Mölndal City, Västra Götaland´s and Örebro County in Sweden. Erikson was awarded with a Master Printer certificate from renown Tamarind Institute (NM, USA) in 2015 and has since been teaching lithography at the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn. In 2019 she was rewarded with Eduard Wiiralt Foundation grant by the Ministry of Culture in Estonia.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/printandtreeprojects/?hl=en Website: mariaeriksonartworks.com

Risako Yamanoi: Sometimes I forget

My work deals with the idea of the human connection, its invisibility and our desire for it. The exhibition consists of installations with found objects and prints.

All of us, young and old, the living and the dead, known and unknown, are indeed connected in many ways. At least, people told me so. We share common things and feelings, same bacteria live inside all of us. But I often find it difficult to believe it. Every day, I would spend hours reading the stories of others on the internet, yet I do not feel the connection among us wholeheartedly.

There have been several moments in my life when I could sense the connections between me and others. But the feeling would not last long, and I would become alone in the world, again and again. I wonder why I forget this feeling of being connected so easily.

Staring at an old book that I found at a second-hand store, I was searching for evidence of something. I tried to imagine a person who owned the book before. I wondered if the person had ever felt alone like I felt alone.

Risako Yamanoi (b. 1994, Takamatsu, Japan) is currently completing her master’s degree in printmaking at the Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki. Sometimes I forget is the first part of her MFA thesis works. The second part will be presented at Kuvan Kevät MFA Degree exhibition, 6.5 - 30.5.2020.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/risakoy/ website: www.http://risakoy.wordpress.com