A couple of weeks ago my exhibition opened at Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki. Needless to say, the timing, again, couldn't have been worse. After opening an exhibition in Miami with hurricane Irma attending three years ago and another gallery abroad cancelling my show a month before the opening last year it's starting to feel like there's a pattern, a path leading to ruin. It's hard not to fall into fatalism these days. The original dates of this year's show even match exactly Finland's emergency powers act law dates for the lockdown. I couldn't have anticipated or imagined this situation just a few months ago. I don't think anyone could have.
But considering how intensively absorbed in work I've been for a year and half, it's in a sense fitting how things turned out: an anomaly, out-of-blue coincidence to balance the energy put into painting. A force and a counterforce together add up as a silent zero, completion. For me a lesson to be learned here about this harsh balance is not just to postpone life until spring, but at the same time, perhaps foolishly to be drained completely in what I do, to seek perfection and closure through completion and exhaustion.
“When you do something, you should do it with your whole body and mind; you should be concentrated on what you do. You should do it completely, like a good bonfire. You should not be a smoky fire. You should burn yourself completely. If you do not burn yourself completely, a trace of yourself will be left in what you do.”
-Suzuki Shunryu
Never mind of the success of some exhibition though, for now we're lucky just to make it through safe and sound, alive and kicking. It's time to take care oneself and others, isolate and be mindful of even the smallest step you take. Maybe there's a lesson to be learned there too.
More info about the exhibition in another post.
Looking ahead
2019, 120cmx130cm, acrylics, collage, ink, pastel and sand on canvas
2019, 120cmx130cm, acrylics, collage, ink, pastel and sand on canvas
