Eeva Huotari: Pohjaanpalaneet

The exhibition consists of animation installations built from graphic works, where printed images come to life and merge into a shared spatial experience.

In my work I explore anxiety, exhaustion and burnout. I read about fish that become depressed, sink to the bottom and never rise again, even when conditions improve. In the same way, a person can become stuck in the mud, even when everything seems fine.

One work is an anxious perch that has been given legs and arms and forced out of its own element - a visual metaphor for a human who no longer receives oxygen as the environment becomes suffocating. Huotari works the plates by hand, continues digitally and transforms graphic prints into animations: an ant woman walks in a circle, a woman spins in her bed, wraps herself in a blanket and forms a cocoon.

Eeva Huotari (born 1976) is a graphic artist and visual artist from Kokkola (YAMK) who works in expanded art graphics and teaches art graphics at the Kokkola regional institute. The exhibition works have been created with the support of the Finnish Cultural Foundation's Central Ostrobothnia regional fund.