Personal update and some uncanny art

Once again a month has passed by. I have been working on my thesis relentlessly and I am happy to say that in two weeks it shall be finished and I will graduate this semester! That will mean that I have more time to write this blog. ^__^ Another thing that has been preoccupying my free time for the past couple of months is the search for an apartment. In the beginning of June I start working in a different city and need to find a place to live. I am really excited because a new chapter is beginning in my life.

For the past couple of months I have visited several art exhibitions but they have not often suited the themes of this blog a.k.a. the artworks I've seen have not been extremely "goth" nor have they represented darker aesthetics. This installation is something I would like to feature. I think it is rather uncanny.

This installation was made by Finnish artist Mia Hamari. Another work of hers was featured in this post in January. The name of this work is "Manual, Siberia, Jester, Party". It is made of two figures. A more human-like creature and an animal with a human face. Hamari draws inspiration from dreams and the subconscious. Her works often feature a human-animal metamorphosis. In this work there are also mechanical/clockwork aspects to them, since the other one has wheels instead of back limbs.

This work was exhibited at the Gallen-Kallela Museum. Gallen-Kallela is one of our national artists and the museum is his old home turned into an exhibition place. There are changing exhibitions and this work of Mia Hamari can be seen till the end of May 2016.

As you can see, this artwork is made of mixed materials, among them bronze, wood and parts of animals. The animals Hamari uses in her art have died in accidents. She has also used human parts like hair and eyelashes. Presumably they are of her own or donated to her.

This smaller statue is the size of a small terrier or another dog. What I really like about this installation is that the expressions on both the creatures' faces are a bit ambiguous, one can easily interpret several different feelings. This way the work can express different feelings and atmospheres, depending of the viewer. The small one is looking up and the taller one has closed its eyes. Though the small one has no pupils in its eyes so nobody knows if it can even see. Very uncanny.

I hope you liked this installation of Mia Hamari!

Gothic Art in Spotlight: Creepy illustrations by Kittelsen and The Magic North exhibition

"Theodor Kittelsen - Waldtroll - 1906"
by Theodor Kittelsen - repro from art book.
Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

The main star of this post is a Norwegian artist Theodor Kittelsen (1857 - 1914). His most famous works are illustrations for Nordic sagas and fairy tales, of which some he wrote himself. Many fairy tales of this era and from previous centuries were quite scary. They were more for adults' entertainment than good night stories for kids. So, the illustrations for these stories were often quite horrific too.

Kittelsen studied at a drawing school in Christiania (nowadays Oslo, the capital of Norway) in his teens and after that studied in Munich and later he got a scholarship to study in Paris. after this he returned to Norway. The Nordic nature was a source of great inspiration for him, especially combined with old folktales and sagas.

In the Nordic woods and remote lakes there are many a creature who can harm you. At least if we believe the old folktales. Different subspecies of trolls roam around and eat humans, and almost in every lake there is a creature called Näkki (in Finnish) or Nøkken (in Norwegian), who is a cruel and manipulative water spirit, and who lures humans into their doom. The real form of Näkki is hideous but it can change its form into a beautiful maiden or to a graceful white horse or to an innocent looking pretty little child. What ever is the best and most luring form to get a human into water.

Nøkken (The Water Sprite) by Kittelsen

In Kittelsen's drawing on the right Näkki or Nøkken is not yet on a hunting mode. It is creepy, slimy and spooky. The lake (or pond) is so still it reflects perfectly the surroundings and the viewer can not see what Nøkken really looks like and what else might be lurking underwater.

To be a part of fairy tales, it is not enough to be a creepy creature eating humans. If everybody knows there is just some ravenous brute under surface, they won't go near water! Näkki must have something human in it, or at least it must have something humans would want.

In most Finnish tales Näkki is a divine violinist. And if you are brave enough, you might get Näkki to be your tutor, but it is cunning and tries to grab you into the water after the lesson. It is a very similar story with all those stories about men selling their souls to devil, if you think about it. They put themselves at risk and they have to be even more crafty than Näkki (Devil) in order to save themselves. Many of old folktales are more like instructions, how to deal with magical creatures, how to get what you want without being destroyed and devoured.

The Plague on the Stair by Kittelsen

Folklore was not the only inspiration Kittelsen had. History and its sad events were intriguing too and according to numerous critics, Kittelsen's historical works of The Black Death are his best works in black and white.

As mentioned, Kittelsen did not only draw, he wrote too and The Black Death is made of fifteen poems and/or poetic prose sections with illustrations all by Kittelsen.

This human form of the Black Death was inspired by a real live person Kittelsen saw. For his creation he gave the name "Pesta", since in many languages the Plague is called Pest. In this most famous drawing of Pesta, she is creeping up the stairs. For me at least, the point of view is familiar from all those horror movies we have these days.

While I was doing some light research for this post, I noticed there are a lot of works by Kittelsen on Pinterest, if you are interested. From there you can see how versatile Kittelsen was and that he also made many beautiful and delicate illustrations about fantastical creatures, little princesses and creatures of forest.

I saw Kittelsen's works at Ateneum, the Finnish national gallery. The exhibition The Magic North is open till the end of September (more precisely 27th of September) and I do recommend it, if anyone is visiting Helsinki in near future. The exhibition features art from Norway and from Finland.

The Magic North is not merely about trolls and fairy tale drawings, even though the name of this exhibition might indicate so. It is more about the general atmosphere of the turn of the century, the dying gasps of Romanticism and roars of Nationalism.

Portrait of Edvard Munch by Gallen-Kallela

Of course there were many trends in art in the end of 19th century and in the beginning of 20th century, but in Norway and Finland (though I should say the Grand Duchy of Finland because back then Finland was under Russian throne) Neo-Romanticism and Nationalism were more important than lets say Impressionism. I have written a bit on this subject on this post about another artist from this same era.

So, the exhibition The Magic North has many paintings of nature without any visible indications of trolls or other fairy creatures. There are also many portraits of peasants and of other artists. One of my favorites is The Portrait of Edvard Munch by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, both men were very famous artists throughout Europe and they used to hang out together.

I think this painting shows a more melancholic side of Munch than his own self-portraits. Many of them have this slightly extravagant illusionist sort of feeling, or at least I feel so. I have written about two paintings by Munch in another previous post.  They are not self-portraits, though.