iisa maaranen

For the Navajo people, turquoise stone signifies protection. They hang a turquoise on the ceiling of their home to protect themselves from the devil.* 

 

Iisa Maaranen‘s solo exhibition Stone in a Watering Can extends over Forum Box’s Permanto and Monttu. The exhibition consists of works thinly painted on cotton with gum arabic tempera, moving between the figurative and the abstract. The imprint of the paintings is dominated by movement and rhythm, but at the same time the atmosphere is quiet and empty.

 

The works show glimpses of a home milieu. The turquoise color is repeated in the paintings in the exhibition, bringing to surface the sources from which we seek refuge. The paintings pause at various small moments and are loaded with meanings.

 

Jars and containers in the bathroom mirror cabinet. A glowing sauna stove and a summer night’s turquoise light at the window. The same turquoise light on the phone’s flashing screen. A hand searching for another hand. An everyday chore. The shade of houseplants and a watering can. 

 

The mood swings between light and dark like an endlessly changing landscape of emotions. The thin painting spreads on the canvas with light vortices, it thickens, searches for a reference point, changes direction and eventually escapes beyond definitions. The atmosphere wanders from presence to absence and back.

 

Arrival and departure. The space between home and the rest of the world. Privacy and generality. Shoes resting on the bright, soft carpet in the hallway. Courtyard path. A beast running in the darkness of the inner world – safely viewed from a window. 

 

 

*The Navajo people are an indigenous people living in the southwestern United States. 

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Many thanks for supporting the exhibition: Suomen Kulttuurirahasto and Taiteen edistämiskeskus

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