 Taru Elfving, 2004 Mari Sunna Mari Sunna's oil paintings and ink washes form an evolving album of haunting figures. Masses of colour and puddles of black meet sobriety of line, somewhere between thought and an image. These ghostly figures are neither becoming abstract nor figurative. Instead they seem to inhabit a state of permanent flux as knots of forces, clashing yet inseparable. The formlessness of facial features does not deem them impersonal blank pages nor does it express incapacity or unwillingness to communicate. Instead of barring contact they invite it - at times with timidity and playfulness, at others throwing us a challenge. Some of the figures breath lightly from within the fine film of paint that creates closure, like a perfect skin seducing the gaze gliding over it. They pause and offer us a ride on the fast flowing lines that keep them in constant motion. In other works points of sudden thickness arise - a seemingly innocent clot in a line, a mouth in a profile or a spark in the corner of an eye. In these sites of possible contact the serene surface is disrupted and some of the hidden charge becomes tangible. In many of Sunna's recent paintings colour has broken away from the service of the forms further. Intense colour fields radiate without any coordinates. Too many legs, arms, pigtails and hems of dress achieve curious coherence in their fragmentation and multiplication. The energies withheld in suspense behind the thin veils of harmony in other works are now leaking out in these moments of defiance, or failure, to present oneself as one. Mari Sunna was born in Espoo, Finland in 1972 and now lives and works in London. Selected shows include: Finsk-Norsk Kulturinstitutt, Oslo (2002), Galerie Anhava, Helsinki, (2002), "Inside Out", Milton Keynes Gallery (2003), The Biennale of Sydney, curated by Isabel Carlos (2004), Le Triage, Paris (2004), "How Would You Light Heaven", Carlier-Gebauer, Berlin (2004). Exhibition: 16.9. - 24.10.2004 Gallery hours: Wed-Sun 12 - 6 pm and by appointment The Approach 47 Approach Road GB-London E29LY Telephone +44 020 8983 3878 Fax +44 020 8983 3919 www.theapproach.co.uk |
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