Events

We are delighted to invite you to Liisa Lounila’s solo show ’Colours’. The opening reception will be held on Thursday, 12 January at 5–7pm.

Helsinki Contemporary opens its spring season with Liisa Lounila’s (b. 1976) solo exhibition Colours, which includes three videos featuring light and colour, 'Stratosphere revisited', 'Spectre', and 'White Noise'. By exploring various theories and studies that discuss colour from the perspectives of pure perception, psychological dimensions, or presumed spiritual characteristics, Lounila has attempted to examine what we actually see when we look at colours.

“I find using colours difficult, regarding myself, my environment, and my works. My discomfort was the basis of this exhibition. Colours are often too much for me – too expressive, too emotional, too restless, too definitive. I like the apparent neutrality and invisibility of colourlessness.”

Lounila’s working method is intuitive. She shoots videos, makes audio recordings, and collects material incessantly. Her works often emerge from a random but fleeting observation, which becomes something different with time, taken out of the original context. In this exhibition, Lounila is in her discomfort zone in the world of colours.

Colours are definitive. They direct our thinking and tinge our moods. We recognise the colour codes of various denominations and professional uniforms; even the results of thermal imaging are displayed in colours. In the current exhibition, Lounila’s installations colour the gallery space and change it.

Lounila is not interested in the controlled use of colours. Shapeless, changing colour consists of light, which is not expected to represent anything. In this exhibition, colours are manifested as they were in the original material, and the mood they create as well as their pleasantness or unpleasantness are left for the viewer to assess.

Read more about the exhibition: https://helsinkicontemporary.com/exhibition/colours


The exhibition will run through 12 February.

Thank you to The Arts Promotion Centre Finland for supporting the artist’s work.

Photo: Liisa Lounila, still from ’Stratosphere revisited’, 2022, video installation