Hakuri and Weckman have known each other for many years. They met while studying together at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts during the 1970s. They have both participated extensively in exhibitions and their works are represented in the collections of several museums. They have also taught, including at the University of Art and Design Helsinki. In parallel with his art, Hakuri also works as a set designer and has produced set designs for theaters and opera houses. For him, the design of time and space is an important part of the work process. Weckman works primarily with concepts and his work is lined with theoretical thinking. The common starting point for Hakuri and Weckman is often literature, visual arts and global changes, which are processed in words and images.
In this exhibition, Hakuri shows drawings made with ballpoint pen and watercolor alongside larger works that use mixed media on veneer. The works are based on the three-year project that began in 2016 – Notes from the Artist’s Diaries– where Hakuri randomly selected press images from Helsingin Sanomat on a daily basis, which he changed by drawing new images. The project resulted in an extensive series of pictures with as many as 1095 drawings. He dived deeply into the newspaper’s world of images and created his own image archive, which has also later given rise to new works, where different motifs merge into new entities and create new possibilities for interpretation. For Hakuri, the paintings are: “…visual stories – the archeology of the soul”.
In the exhibition, Weckman presents works from different series. Not going somewhere? is a graphic series of oil paintings where the line has a prominent role. According to Weckman, the question of the significance of the departure or escape is dealt with, and in this case metaphorically, the escape to the mountains. The series includes, for example, the work Low Full Moon Meltdown. In another series called, I Remember, Leif Färding, the visitor can see the verses of the poet Leif Färding, who was formerly active in Vaasa (1951-1983). In the early 1980s, Färding visited Weckman in his apartment and, at Weckman’s suggestion, wrote some text fragments, which later in 2004 became details in Weckman’s drawings. Even today, Färding’s poetry continues to provide inputs to new works, which the visitor can now take part in.
Hakuri and Weckman’s first discussions about Mann’s novel The Magic Mountain began in 2020 and provided the framework for the exhibition’s theme. Metaphorically, the magic mountain takes place in the Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art and as a visitor, you can take part in this world. There is a dialogue taking place between the artists where they offer their interpretations of magical mountains and distant landscapes. The exhibition is produced in collaboration with the artists Markku Hakuri and Jan Kenneth Weckman and Vaasa City Museums. The majority of the works on display are from previous years and some works are completely new.
