Sanna Kannisto, Field studies

Sanna Kannisto

Field studies

III gallery floor, 14.05.06 - 11.07.06

My work explores the relationship between nature and culture. In my artistic work I aim to study the methods, theories and concepts through which we approach nature in art and in science. As an artist I am attracted by the idea that when I am working in a rain forest I am a ‘visual researcher’. In my series Private Collection and Field Studies I was interested in borrowing methods of representation, as well as working methods, from the natural sciences, from anthropological and archaeological practices and from still-life painting tradition to use in my photographic work. Taking photographs in a field studio has become one of my most important working methods. The portable photography box I have constructed is like a stage showing scenes from nature, which I direct. When the object has been taken out of its original setting - out of nature - it becomes special. The aspect of a white background that suggests scientific recording and documentation interests me. These compositions in the field studio have also allegoric nature. For me photography is a medium, which in itself documents the transience of life. One of my aims is to use irony and humour to investigate the concept of truth in photography and to ask how we actually want to view nature. According to Claude Lévi-Strauss, during the course of cultural evolution, man changes a raw and unpalatable nature into one that is cooked and digestible. Photography can resemble a cooking process of sorts. The photographed objects are made intelligible by being photographed, and are incorporated into culture. In the same way as in science, art too is used to try to bring the world under control. The impossibility of this task is also linked with a certain absurdity that I have noticed in my pictures.

The pictures in the Private Collection and in the Field Studies series were taken at biological field stations in Brazil, French Guiana and Costa Rica in 2000–2004.

Sanna Kannisto

Born in Hämeenlinna, Finland in 1974. Lives and works in Helsinki.

Studies
1998–2002 MA, University of Art and Design in Helsinki, Dept. of Photography
1994–1997 Turku school of Art and Communication, Dept. of Photography

Solo exhibitions (selected)
2006
Galerie La Ferronnerie, Paris, France
Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta, U.S.A.
Galerie Wilma Tolksdorf, Berlin, Germany
Gallery F-Station, Month of Photography in Krakow, Poland (catalogue)
Galleria K, Huittinen, Finland
Bergen Kunshall, Norway
2004
Galerie La Ferronnerie, Paris, France (catalogue)
2002
Finnish Institute in Paris, France (catalogue)
Finnish Institute in Madrid, Spain
Gallery Hippolyte, Helsinki, Finland (book)
2001
CuLTUR, Västerås, Sweden
VB-Photographic Centre, Kuopio, Finland
Rantagalleria, Oulu, Finland
2000
Gallery of the Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, Finland (catalogue Photo.doc)
Hyvinkää Art Museum, Hyvinkää, Finland
Works in collections
State Art Collection, Finland
Finnish Museum of Photography
Fine Arts Society of Finland
Salo Art Museum, Finland
FRAC Haute-Normandie, France
Art Center Chamarande, France
Artothèque, Bibliothèque d’Auxerre, France
Private collections Finland, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, U.S.A., Austria and Switzerland

Grants
2006
Arts Council of Finland
2005
Alfred Kordelin Foundation
Finnish Cultural Foundation
Finnish Fund for Art Exchange (Frame)
2004
City of Paris
Finnish Fund for Art Exchange (Frame)
2003
Hasselblad Foundation
Ministry of Education
Finnish Cultural Foundation
2002
Finnish Fund for Art Exchange (Frame)
Arts Council of Finland

Residencies and photographic journeys
Costa Rica, artistic expedition 2006
Capacete residence, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2005
Costa Rica, artistic expedition 2004
Cité des Arts residence, Paris, France 2004
Costa Rica, artistic expedition 2003 and 2001
French Guiana and Brazil, artistic expedition 2000
Peru, artistic expedition 1998 and 1997

Memberships
Organization of Artist Photographers in Finland

www.sannakannisto.com

Currently in Yours Gallery

I Floor: Wojtek Wieteska, curator Maja Kaszkur, 11.06.10-12.09.10