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| Poster of the exhibition |
While I was in Tampere I
took the time to visit the exhibition Älä kerro in
Kahvisalonki, a small cafe owned by Jari Partanen. He has been
organising small exhibitions for almost 13 years. During this time,
he has noticed that each exhibition brings in a new audience, which
brings a nice contrast and keeps the cafe alive. He is particularly
pleased when an exhibition, such as this one, brings in younger
people. Jari says he trusts the artists to picture important
discussions well, and is very pleased by the positive reactions.
Helping out artists is a nice advantage too.
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| Jari Partanen, owner of Kahvisalonki |
This month's exhibition was organised by Tuula Mäkelä and features pictures by students of the Ikaalinen College of Crafts and Design including one by my friend Samuli Björkling. All the pictures deal with secrets and how to handle them through language and proverbs or through art. The works are made using different techniques: digital drawing, aquarel, photo manipulation, etc. and they are for sale in case you want to help out young artists.
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| Samuli Björkling |
Samuli's picture shows a
man about to be killed by an Iron Maiden (torture machine from the
Middle Ages which has spikes coming closer and closer to the person
in order to stab the person) if he doesn't share his secret. Samuli
says that he wanted to make a dark composition because people often
expect him to make cheerful drawings. 'I wanted to go further from my
comfort zone and try something new', he explains. Samuli took this
exhibition as an opportunity to show a different side of him (and succeeded). People seem shocked to see this difference in Samuli's work but that was the point. Upon hearing the positive reaction from people, Samuli says 'it feels good, we've done something right and it's nice we haven't upset any people despite the darkness of our work'.
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When I had looked
attentively at the pictures, I noticed there seemed to be some common
themes, such as torture and animal rights, and had a message to
society. This was apparently unintentional but, as Samuli says, it is
funny to see how people influence each other, just by sitting close
to each other. Samuli is glad to notice there are good artists in his
group and that they all support each other. This proves we cannot
always know what influences us, maybe secrets burden us more than we
think, maybe that one work of art left a greater impression on us
than we thought.
So if you have some time
to spare, please do check out the exhibition and the following links and consider
supporting young artists:
