Laura Wesamaa: misha, mise-en-scène | 10.1.-2.2.2020

if you want to learn how to paint a flower, place a blooming stem in a deep hole and trace it viewing from the above. you will capture the four skins of the flower. if you want to learn how to paint a bamboo, pick a bamboo branch and in moonlight project its shadow on a smooth white wall. this is how a bamboo’s true form is revealed.
– guo xi, the lofty message of forest and streams

selfie stick, scented tree spiral, candy wrapping, peach tree, yearn, parking lot, projector, pack of cigarettes, bobbles, fig opuntia, lighter, scissors in molasses, keys, pen, oregano +, coffee cup glove cable chain pompoms tomatoes sea horse finecareful

roofless door opens,
twelve stripes in tail, whatness and thisness

leaf moves stays in the air
leaf spins around itself
leaf spins 
leaf spins itself

captures a video, phone rings, pegaso approaches further away, home gentle garden, gaze in touch title
throws a can, millstone, fish pool, usb, gift wrapping rope, falisc mask, hat with a pocket

food bucket in electrical cabinet, downward the path forward downhill
do you lose something if you see everything? electricity in flowers, mise-en-scène

how to fly into an image?

How to depict nothingness, important or meaningless? The works in the exhibition have come into being in interaction with various surroundings, beings and agencies. misha, mise-en-scène is a painterly study on the connections and the shared essence of the inanimate and the animate. This interaction results as an installation and a sort of a play, which on features a cat as its protagonist.

Text: Mika Palonen

Laura Wesamaa (b.1979) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 2008, she lives and works in Helsinki. Her previous solo exhibitions were; windy heart or inner life at Mältinranta Art center in Tampere (2017) and seed-syllable rides the horse of energy at SIC gallery in Helsinki (2016).  In addition to her independent artistic work, Wesamaa has curated group exhibions and worked in artist-run communities and associations such as Mustarinda (2009-) and Oksasenkatu11 (2008-2013). Wesamaa is also one of the founders of the SIC gallery (2012-).

The artist thanks: Titanik, Finnish Cultural Foundation, Väino Tanner Foundation, Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Mika Palonen, Tito Kasa, Caffè del Falco, roman forest.