Friday 6 January 2012

Eija-Liisa Ahtila

To begin, what connects me with Eija-Liisa Ahtila’s work are the themes she explores, the methodology of her practice and what drives her to create the work she does. Simply because, they are things I have begun to notice in myself.
Born in Hämeenlinna, Finland in 1959, Ahtila’s work takes on themes such as, love, sexuality, identity, jealousy, anger, vulnerabilit, and reconciliation. She has continued to explore these powerful emotions that underly human relationships throughout her career, and her work has been described (by herself) as ‘human dramas’. Ahtila creates fictional narratives from lengthy periods of research as well as from her own observations and experiences. The process of emotional reconciliation is a recurrent motif: her characters move between past and present without relying on a conventional cinematic 'flashback'. In recent work, the border between 'self' and 'other' is investigated as the viewer is invited to peer inside the minds of individuals caught in moments of psychological fragility.




Elija-Liisa Ahtila, Laugh, 2000
from the Assitant Series, 27 x 73 in. (69 x 186.5cm) framed







Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Closed Door, 2000
from the Assistant Series, 27 x 73 in. (69 x 186.5 cm) framed



Eija-Liisa Ahtila, View, 2000
from the Assistant Series, 24 x 68 in. (61 x 172.5) framed


She is very much concerned with the language of film-making. There are three elements that she views as central to her work: the way images are constructed, the way narrative unfolds, and the physical space in which the work is encountered. She is interested in how film and video are absorbed into our everyday worlds, and many of her works adopt the techniques of contemporary media, from music videos, commercials, cinema trailers to documentary film. Some of the films are shown on multiple screens, or within complex installations that require the viewer to navigate their way through the space. Others are as likely to be encountered in a cinema or on television as in a gallery setting.




Eija-Liisa Ahtila, House, 2000
from the Assistant Series, 24 x 68 in. (61 x 172.5 cm) framed


Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Support, 2000
from the Assistant Series, 27 x 73 in. (69 x 186.5 cm) framed

Eija-Liisa Ahtila currently works in Helsinki.





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