23 July 2010

A field of spheres

This image appeared among thumbnails of paintings by artists from Scandinavia (the Carnegie Art Award show, 2009) - I thought it might be cloth -It's by a Finnish artist, Hannu Väisänen (b.1951), and consists of a background with a video projection. I was intrigued by the description - a field of small, painted spheres - they look like small beads. The work, Nulla succede per caso (Nothing happens by chance) measures 485x214cm - too large to fit over the sofa -
Here's the description from the art award site:

>In the painting Nulla succede per caso (Nothing happens by chance) Hannu Väisänen elaborates on a visual style that has characterised his work for some time. Inspired by the Roman philosopher Lucretius’s book De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things), in which he establishes the main principles of the atomic universe, Väisänen has meticulously constructed an enormous field of countless small, painted spheres that together form a dense, strange surface. Taking the Italian expression as his motto, he initially let the pattern in these works develop randomly, so any similarities the final shapes may have with existing objects have arisen unconsciously. The exceedingly time-consuming work on a large painting has been documented continuously and is shown as a projection on the canvas, animating the otherwise entirely two-dimensional pictorial surface and conveying a slightly vibrating sensation.
>In addition to being active as a painter and graphic artist, Väisänen has also been acclaimed for his ability to lend colour, volume and depth to words: in 2007, he was awarded Finland’s most prestigious literary prize, the Finlandia Prize, for his second autobiographical novel, Toiset kengät (The Other Shoes).

Another appearance of the "spheres" motif:
And something a bit different, "10,000 Creatures" from 2005 -
Väisänen writes about a lovely little painting by Sasseta, encountered in Budapest, here.

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