The die-cut scraps from our childhood come to life in Karoliina Paappa's exhibition Tyttö ja tiikeri (The Girl and the Tiger). A tiger has escaped from the pages of a scrap album and landed in a Jugendstil apartment. A lush display of fruit and flower baskets, typical imagery in die-cut scraps, surrounds coffee-drinkers, as deer and cats keep them company. Paappa's works joyfully play with scale, colour and the intertwinement of daily life and illusion. Viewers feel the urge to become part of Paappa's magical and strange fairy-tale world.
Karoliina Paappa sets up installations in specifically chosen spaces, incorporating props she makes from blown-up die-cut scraps and ready-made objects. The die-cut scraps really come to life, as Paappa places masked human models as part of the installations. The artist does not edit her works using image processing software. The enchanting mood of the images is created at the shoot as a joint effort between Paappa and her team.
In her works, Paappa builds small scenes that transport the viewer into a world of memories and stories. The artist is interested in how ultimately similar people's emotional worlds are, and how they long to hear the same basic stories. The impulse to create the installations came when Paappa was studying dioramas. She was attracted to their way of imitating reality and of telling stories by use of visual means. Indeed, Paappa's works can be construed as dioramas of mental landscapes.
Karoliina Paappa graduated from the Tampere University of Applied Sciences Department of Fine Art in 2012, and has studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Canada. She has held solo exhibitions, mainly in Tampere, and has participated in several group exhibitions, film festivals and events, both in Finland and abroad.
Guided tours: Public free-of-charge guided exhibition tours (in Finnish): Sundays 13; Morning guided exhibition tours Wednesdays 11.15–11.45, conversational exhibition guide: Sundays 14–15. Museum entry fee.
To book guided tours or workshops: workshop@fmp.fi , tel. +358 9 6866 3621
Further information on workshops, guided tours and public program: Head of education and public programmes Erja Salo, +358 44 2706216, erja.salo@fmp.fi
Further information on the exhibitions: Curator Tiina Rauhala, +358 504327562, tiina.rauhala@fmp.fi
Exhibition hours Tue–Sun, 11–18 Wed, 11–20. Admission fees: 8 / 5 €, Under 18 years-olds and exhibitions in Process-space: free entrance
The Finnish Museum of Photography, Cable Factory, Tallberginkatu 1 G, 00180 Helsinki tel. +358 9 6866 3621 / fmp@fmp.fi / www.valokuvataiteenmuseo.fi/en
The Finnish Museum of Photography
Project Space
The Cable Factory, The Cable Factory, Tallberginkatu 1 G, 00180 Helsinki
