Riitta is known for her temporary site-specific installations in nature, consisting of second-hand clothing and flea market fabrics. She sees old clothes and textiles as vestiges of absence. These people are at the same time both present and absent in her photographs: they demonstrate an “imaginary meeting”. The clothes bring a humane element and some colour to the bare spring or autumn landscapes.
In her new series, “River Notes”, Riitta continues to work with same themes but also looks further into our subconscious. Landscape has always had an essential role in Riitta’s work. Isolated landscape, in which she makes the installation, becomes a starting point, a specific feeling, memory, shape, structure, colour or element of the surrounding nature functions as inspiration as well as a temporary stage. In “River Notes”, water represents a mirage to our dreams, memories and our subconscious. Combined with the ribbons, the result is a riddle that lures the viewer further into the image.
According to Kati Kivinen, curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA:
“Riitta Päiväläinen’s photographs unveil her explorations into the landscape, which has served as her canvas for over a decade. For Päiväläinen, nature is not only a source of artistic inspiration, but it has also been her private sanctuary since her childhood -a place to roam and wander about in peace and silence, opening all her senses with no restrictions-. Her works gracefully manifest this relationship between herself and the landscape, and she achieves this by settling down to the same level with the different elements in the landscape. In her deeply subjective landscape photographs, nature is captured as if in a state of dream or vision.”
Curated by Juan Curto
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