When viewed up close, the repetitive drawing marks that form the picture surface become visible, taking shape as a kind of recording of temporality and embodied presence at the moment of drawing. From a distance, the works appear as mirrors, windows, openings, coverings, veils, and dense thickets.
Some of the works allow light to pass through their translucent materials, softening the outlines of what lies beneath. In others, the empty space of the paper and sharply defined forms detached from their background create the impression of looking into backlight.
The works can be viewed both inside and outside the exhibition space, from many directions, and partly through them. The boundaries between dimensions and states of being appear fluid, seeping into one another. The body is present in the drawings as simplified visual references to eyes and hands, to seeing and touching. The works at once invite the viewer to look and recognize, while also concealing and leaving something hidden.
Holding on to making with hands and to embodied being in the world feels vital in this time. As everything accelerates and digitizes at immense speed, and as many issues are truly of burning urgency (the situation in Palestine, the climate crisis…), there still exist processes that require time, that unfold at their own pace and in their own unpredictable directions. It is within this hazy terrain that encounters and connections between people also take place.
Maria Pääkkönen (b. 1988) is a visual artist based in the Helsinki region, working extensively with drawing through different tools and techniques, from pencil to charcoal and bodily movement. Her practice ranges from small-scale drawings to monumental drawing installations and long-duration drawing performances, which she often creates in collaboration with Oslo-based visual artist Ingeborg Blom Andersskog. Recurring themes in her work include time, change and memory, the act of looking, the body, and relationships between people and their environment. Pääkkönen holds an MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Helsinki (2016). Her works have been presented in solo and group exhibitions internationally, most recently at Galleria Ratamo in Jyväskylä and at the Mänttä Art Festival in summer 2024.
www.mariapaakkonen.com
In connection with the exhibition, the artist’s self-published book Small Drawings is available, featuring small-scale monochromatic drawings from 2021–2024.
