Laura Lilja: Black On White

7.1. - 30.1.2011 Laura Lilja: Black On White in Titanik Gallery, Turku, Finland

Laura Lilja:

‘The starting points of the exhibition are obituaries of certain deceased Finnish artists, as poet Isa Asp, author and poet Eeva-Liisa Manner and author, illustrator and painter Tove Jansson. The obituaries have been published in Finnish newspapers during 19th-21th centuries. What and how they told about artists’ private life? What can be read behind the conventions or between the lines? Is it possibly to question the hetero-norm by studying the obituaries and repeating them slightly differently? I have searched the obituaries for texts concerning the private life of the artists. I have copied these text extracts on broad newspaper rolls. So I have used the original texts and fonts, only in bigger scale and by different technique – cut stencils, spray paint and the shadows of the texts on the gallery walls. In the Titanik Gallery I’m presenting the obituaries of 7 Finnish artists – Hanna Ongelin, Tove Jansson, Isa Asp, Eeva-Liisa Manner, Siri von Essen, Hagar Olsson and Helvi Juvonen. Also names of Edith Södergran and Tuulikki Pietilä turn up in texts. Other interesting deceased Finnish artist, when studying gender, sexuality and the questioning of the hetero-norm, are for example Hilda Käkikoski, Venny Soldan-Brofeldt, Wivi Lönn, Vivica Bandler etc.’

Laura Lilja: Black On White
Titanik-galleria
Itäinen Rantakatu 8
Turku, Finland
7.1. – 30.1.2011

Related Links
Laura Lilja’s website
Titanik-galleria