Ola Kolehmainen: Enlightenment

1923. 2011 c-print, diasec.

Ola Kolehmainen is famous for his large abstract architectural photographs. The current exhibition of Kolehmainen´s work at the Alvar Aalto Museum presents some of his latest works, most of which are associated with Aalto buildings.

Looking at art is a process of perception, realisation and insight as is suggested by the name of the exhibition, Enlightenment. To Kolehmainen, enlightenment means the layering of the works - with points of contact between facts and phenomena, stimulation and inspiration, a kind of easy and effortless movement between different periods.

Kolehmainen´s photographs open up abstract paths to Aalto´s buildings of which most of us have personal experiences. By looking at a picture we may come face to face with the feeling of that original experience or we may be susceptible to something entirely new. In Kolehmainen´s pictures, seeing and creating intersect at many levels, but then the gestation of Aalto´s buildings was a dialogue between new and different influences. Aalto drew on both Classical Italian architecture and the very latest contemporary architecture for inspiration.

The works on show in the exhibition were photographed in various places including Viipuri (Vyborg) Library, Paimio Sanatorium, the Jyväskylä Workers´ Club and the Alvar Aalto Museum. There is also a work on show in the exhibition which draws on the architecture of Frank Gehry who in turn was strongly influenced by Aalto.

Aalto´s buildings are icons. From Kolehmainen´s point of view there is no sense in photographing them in reality, one-to-one. The nature of the materials is so strong. For instance, Kolehmainen describes brick as being ‘difficult to break into´. Taking pictures is a slow business; according to Kolehmainen it might take a year to make one picture.

In his works Kolehmainen is searching for a space-time experience engendered in the mind. At its deepest he is seeking it in an unassuming and easy-looking manner by stopping surfaces, forms, colours and light in a new spatial impression. At the same time, he guides - and deepens - our experience of existing reality.

Alvar Aalto Museum
Alvar Aallon katu 7, Jyväskylä
admission fee 6€/4€
www.alvaraalto.fi

Period:
15.3.2012–29.7.2012 NÄYTTELY/TAPAHTUMA PÄÄTTYNYT