Gallery Napa
Kairatie 3, Rovaniemi, Finland
My series of ink drawings deals with innocence and the possibility of losing it on a personal level as well as on general level.
When a child is still a child he possesses the capacity for everything between good and evil. What locks the capacity for development? Where does evil come from? From where does fundamentalism emanate?
In the drawings, a social aspect is united with the level of personal feeling, present time with art history. The personal level is political: as a startign point, I use Adolf Hitler's childhood portrait as well as the picture of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein as a baby. Both my sons appear in the drawings.
With the help of contemporary criticism, the exhibition studies the bases of our western system of values.
Culturally we are experiencing a period of overdeveloped growth. Consumption characterizes our existence. The recycling of our thoughts and cultural products is catching up speed. There is too much of everything. As our culture continues to "develop" the forms remain, but the content is withering, the meanings are emptied out.
We learn the culture, but do we at the same time lose nature? How can we preserve an open mind to change?
In the hanging of the exhibition the art work "Contemporary Mythologies" is counterbalanced by a collage drawing consisting of 400 pieces. This represents the only existing area of freedom of thought and of fantasy.
Mika Vesalahti (b. 1967) is a painter living in Helsinki. He has presented a number of exhibitions both in Finland and abroad, and has taken part in numerous joint exhibitions at home and abroad. He is active in art organizations and was chairman of Helsinki Painters' Association 2009-2016. The series in question has previously (2014) been shown at the gallery Uusi Kipinä in Lahti, and during 2015 at gallery Kajava, Helsinki, gallery Becker in Jyväskylä, at Kondase Center in Estonia and Pärnu Museum of Contemporary Art in Estonia. 2016 Taidesalonki gallery Helsinki. The series grows through every venue.
Artwork: Peace, justice and freedom (for Banksy), 2015, ink drawing, 29 x 21 cm.
Contact: mika.t.vesalahti(at)gmail.com
www.mikavesalahti.com
www.kuvataiteilijamatrikkeli.fi