Ville Andersson
Desert Music

05. - 28.02.2021

The artist is present at the exhibition:

Sat 6.2. :12–16
Wed 10.2. :14–18
Sun 14.2. :12–16
Thu 18.2. :14–18
Sat 27.2. :12–16


Ville Andersson’s solo exhibition Desert Music opens Helsinki Contemporary’s spring 2021 season. In this new set of works, the theme of quiet and quietude that Andersson frequently explores is joined by the irresistible force of nature and the experience of it.

The wilderness and light are recurrent themes here. The desert is timeless and placeless – the traces left by humankind are ephemeral, and Andersson’s new works are entirely devoid of human figures. The absence of people creates a powerful sense of presence – as if the idea of a human were stronger than their visual presence. The abstract, biomorphic shapes bring to mind rock, dunes, and rays of sunlight. Depicting the sublimity of nature and the idea of a connection between the human and nature have been important for Andersson. In addition to a sense of interconnectedness, he says that something that provokes restlessness can also be present in our experience of nature, since what we are experiencing is greater than a human being. These reductive works seem to epitomize the idea that humans need nature, but that nature does not need humans.

The exhibition work Shimmer had its beginnings in the dazzling light of the desert and in its subtle, momentary changes, and sheds light on the key elements of the whole. The work is lucid, restrained and realized with very little colour. It can be read as a continuation of US 1960s minimalism. Formalism and, in their aesthetics, Japanese culture and art are other important references for Andersson.

The exhibition consists of photographs, digitally manipulated images, drawings and works made using adhesive vinyl. Andersson is a versatile maker, and his exhibition is characterized not only by its mode of execution, but also by variations in size, texture and subject matter. There thus arises a dynamic and a rhythm that structure the viewing experience. The contrasts arise out of a juxtaposition of edgeless forms with sinuous and straight lines. The black-and-white photographs balance out the whole, giving it a feeling of documentarity alongside the images manipulated using totally digital technology. After a long break, colour, too, has crept back in: carmine red and pieces of paper in earthy colours disrupt the otherwise subdued black-and-white expression.

Andersson says the working process has been an intuitive one. He worked on several of his previous series of works largely through verbalization and rationality. Now, he lets the process direct itself within a given structure. He wants the distance of the works to create a space for the viewer’s own thoughts and feelings. Daily meditation has given his working process new approaches, quietening the mind is an experience that he also wants to bestow on those who experience his works.

Ville Andersson (b. 1986, Pernaja) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, in 2012. He received the Young Artists of the Year Award and solo exhibitions at Tampere Art Museum and at Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova in 2015. In 2018, he was a Watermill Center artist-in-residence in New York, where he began working on the new series of works and, in 2020, he was awarded an Inga Maren Otto Fellowship by Watermill. Andersson has had solo exhibitions at LOKO Gallery and Diesel Art Gallery in Tokyo, and has participated in group exhibitions in Germany, for example, at Salon Dahlmann, Samuelis Baumgarte Galerie and Museum Weserburg. His works are in the main public collections in Finland: Saastamoinen Foundation; Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma; Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation; and Amos Rex; and in numerous private collections in Finland and abroad.


Read Andersson's text on the backgrounds of the exhibition >>>