Anssi Sojakka - Artist's Statement

The process of making the paintings is very slow and it involves a lot of waiting and careful planning. I don't draw or sketch the paintings, but instead I use chains to paint with. This is a very meticulous process and I have a lot of time to consider my lines and the shape that the paintings are taking, as each line on the painting is made by laying a chain down and then dropping paint onto that chain with a pipette one drop at a time. The paint gets pulled under the chain and then has to dry for a couple of days before the chain can be removed. This process is then repeated again and again, and gradually the painting evolves. I spend a lot of time aligning the chains in a way that takes into consideration the other chains so that each new layer is balanced with the previous ones. This method is similar to that of building roads around, under and over already existing roads, and for this reason the paintings have a similar look to them as aerial photographs.

I often start off with colours that might not go so well together. I am drawn to rotting objects like bits of food, moldy tea bags and deep, murky sewer waters. My work is usually very dark in tone with sharp highlights of contrasting colour. This, in my mind, creates a certain kind of mood in the work. The mood is slightly different in each painting, but what I aim to bring across is always something very subtle, fragile and even melancholic. I circle around common themes like the sea, which is always moving into an infinite amount of directions, overwhelmingly complex structures, decomposing and rotting matter, maps and patterns and knots. In all the chaos I look for order and design, that hidden force that holds it all together.

Knots

Thin chainlike shapes snake over and under each other. They form coils that are nested by the surrounding whirling serpentines, which again are entwined by more springs, curls and helixes. The paintings are like giant knots and their shape is determined by the hundreds of interlaced components that form them. These knots appear impenetrable and chaotic from a distance, but close up there are visible gaps between them. In all its complexity, the architecture of each painting is fragile, almost as if it was entangled within itself.