My solo exhibition Unexplained Figures (Selittämättömät hahmot) was opened on Friday at Hirvitalo - Pispala Center for Contemporary Art. Here below some photos and info about the exhibition.
I have been working with a local poet, Arto Lappi. He is very well-known in Finland, hes has published poem collections and translated poetry in Finnish. He created wonderful poems inspirated by my artworks.
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| First room in Hirvitalo exhibition, Floating on the Milky Way plus three works from Ancestor-serie. |
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| K. Tschährä: Fruits of the Universe I and II Hirvitalo exhibition 12.1.-3.2.2024 |
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| Arto Lappi's poem for the works Fruits of the Universe Hirvitalo exhibition 12.1.-3.2.2024 |
K. Tschährä
feat. Arto Lappi
Unexplained Figures
12.1.–3.2.2024
Pispala Center for Contemporary Art, Hirvitalo
The exhibition Unexplained Figures in two rooms on the upper floor of the Hirvitalo presents K. Tschährä's latest works and Arto Lappi's poems, which were born from Tschährä's works.
In the first room of the exhibition, K. Tschährä's dark-toned works are displayed, the main part is a detailed drawing. The second room presents the artist's more painterly and light-toned works. Both rooms have poems by Arto Lappi that are related to the exhibited works. The works and poems live their own lives, but are symbiotically connected to each other and to the meanings created by the experiencer.
K. Tschährä works with drawing, painting and video art. Through her art, she explores the unconscious expression of the human mind and body. In the detailed drawings, the microscopic life of cells is combined with the movements of the infinite universe. Fractals, shapes filled with dots and textures that look like weaves form organic tendrils are like in a slowly rotating movement. Human faces and animals float in the flow of energies as hidden image-like figures. K. Tschährä's art deals with the eternal cycle of nature and the legacy of shamanism, where our existence is connected to the past and the future and where all things are interconnected. Mycelia are like connecting threads or impulses. Time is not linear, but different time levels and events exist simultaneously and in layers.
Tschährä is an artist name, but it is the original of the artist's family, a Karelian surname. K. Tschährä (aka Katja Villemonteix) lives and works in her childhood home in Pispala. She uses body automation in her art and her art can be classified as so-called visionary art.
"Drawing is like an ancient rite for me, which I have to repeat even obsessively and in a machine-like way. The process is very personal and intense for me and it seems insufficient to try to open it with words. I don't plan my works nor make sketches, the characters appear according to their own will. Each so-called mistake has its own purpose and the work is modified guided by the resulting trace. I feel that the spiritual home of my art is in the imagery of indigenous peoples and cave paintings.
Although my works are largely abstract, in them I see natural forms and patterns of wind, movements of clouds and waves, formations of flocks and fish schools, etc. Drawing gives me a sense of freedom and has a strong meditative meaning. I work under an artist name because my art is separate from my everyday self. The name Tschährä also connects me to the continuity of my Karelian family."
– K. Tschährä
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| Second room in Hirvitalo exhibition by K. Tschährä. |
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| Close photos of big paper works by K. Tschährä. |
Arto Lappi (b. 1966) is a poet from Tampere, who has published 10 books of poetry and two larger selections that complement each other (Taivaanpohjassa laulavat valaat, 2020, Korallimieli, 2023). He has also worked as a Finnish translator (eg Raymond Carver, Jack Kerouac, Anne Waldman). He is known to a wider audience for his proverbs published in Aamulehti's Moro magazine, which have also been compiled into two books (Pökhölmista päivää, Katton nääs). He has also written the discussion book "Godless priest and kampurajalka" together with Zen priest Mitra Virtaperko.
"My poems for the exhibition were created during the last year in several parts, in interaction with Katja's works. The usual way of sitting down and writing didn't work. Artworks had to be given time to resonate. A certain seriality has proven to work in my previous productions, and I was amazed at how coherent the poems turned out to be. At the same time, they could not have been born without the contribution of Katja's work.
Each work and poem is both a question and an answer. And the double question: Who are you? Who am I? We don't know where art comes from, where it goes. Somewhere in the space behind the viewer's eyes, where it begins to live its own life and hopefully give birth to new spaces.
One of the tasks of art is a moment of experience that leads to wonder. To be a company and knowledgeable at the same time, to make the question and the answer unnecessary. I myself have chosen poetry precisely for the sake of wonder. If I knew in advance what I was going to write, it would be pointless to write."
- Arto Lappi
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| Poem by Arto Lappi (only in Finnish) inspirated by K. Tschährä's drawing Beasts of the Night. |
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| Poem by Arto Lappi (only in Finnish) inspirated by K. Tschährä's drawing Stripes of the Wild. |
Unexplained Figures
12.1.–3.2.2024
Pispala Center for Contemporary Art, Hirvitalo
upper floor exhibition space
Hirvikatu 10, 33240 Tampere
Open Tue–Sun 14–19
Free entry
Second room in Hirvitalo exhibition by K. Tschährä. 
K. Tschährä: Cave Painting I, 2024
100x160cm, acrylic, acrylic ink, ink pen, pigment ink pen
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