EEVA HANNULA | INTERVIEW
Metronom: Your practice is characterized by the technique of collage. How do you choose the elements that will make up an artwork?
Eeva Hannula: I collect materials for collages from various sources: old books, my own photographs and drawings, my photo albums, and internet archives. I see all of that as photographic material that I start working with. I can reprint images that I have edited in different ways and create new collages from them. I choose collage parts largely based on intuition. A piece of an image starts to fascinate me, and I can photograph it, edit it, and reprint it, seeking associative relationships with different objects, shapes, traces, other images and materials. The piece of the image begins to speak to me, and it may take a long time before, through many different edits and forms, the piece settles as part of the image and I feel it communicates with the other parts of the image and the title of the work. When some parts start to repeat, I consider what kinds of metaphors or symbolic meanings the images begin to carry.
M: When the creation process begins, do you already have the final outcome in mind, or do you compose the artwork step by step, letting yourself be guided by the moment?
EH: Actually, my process can encompass both aspects. Sometimes I envision a solution in advance. For example, in the case of the work “The light of tomorrow flows in the bones of the images (The sweat of representation)” the collage within the frame was initially created through improvisation during the photography session. One part of the work (a part of a statue) was photographed through modeling clay. Other parts (the colorful stone eyes of the statues) were created through digital editing. Finally, one early morning, I envisioned how this piece expanded from its framed form, and I came up with the idea to UV-print the eyes of the statues from the collage onto pieces of clay I had made. Often, during the photography session, different collage pieces and available materials start to converse with each other, and this process is based on improvisation.
M: The installation of the works “The light of tomorrow flows in the bones of the images (The sweat of representation)” and “In this room there is a possibility of thinking about the edge and falling over it” is designed to involve and merge different types of materials and supports – pieces of clay, photographic collage, printed mat – into a single artwork. What guides you in the choice of the arrangement?
How do the different supports communicate with each other? And how do you choose one material over another?
EH: I have wanted to mix digital and material approaches in my process. I have considered, for example, the connection between photography and clay as materials. I believe there is something similar between clay and contemporary photography. I see an analogy between digital editing and clay. I find it fascinating to mix digital editing and handcrafting, and then combine these. Clay is one of the earliest materials in art, and I find it intriguing to print on its surface using UV technology. Additionally, I think ancient statues are ingrained in my subconscious as one of fundamental models of representation, and I found it fascinating to disrupt this and also refer to the fact that they were originally colorful. I am generally interested in seeing what happens to photographic material when it is incorporated into different materials.
For example, in the work “In this room there is a possibility of thinking about the edge and falling over it,” the mat is a doormat, a place where we are not usually accustomed to seeing art. The very idea that one can step on it challenges the notion of an untouchable artwork. Fabric, on the other hand, evokes feelings of vulnerability, softness, and it refers to painting. For instance, in the work “Swaddle your gaze,” I photographed a piece of collage in water mixed with watercolor. The final piece merges with the background image and the floating watercolor marks on the surface, which can evoke various associations between a figure, a child’s foot, and traces. All these elements also reference brushstrokes, and when this work is printed on fabric, it takes on a new form and ambiance, conveyed through its material. In a way the color stains seem to absorb into the fabric.
M: An intriguing component of your work is the contrast generated by the juxtaposition of colorful elements with black and white backgrounds. What are you seeking in this union?
EH: I think that layering can represent different time levels. Black and white often refers to old archival photos or the past, while later editing or marks refer to the present. It is in part like photographic writing, rewriting the material, a kind of palimpsest; the colored and black-and-white parts have their own voices. I see them as two different narrative voices. Together, they form wholes and associative dialogues.
