Today I practiced drawing fire / convex, caterpillar, gray images, in holes, sun-faded cycle
Essi Immonen, Anna-Stiina Korhonen, Eeva-Maija Pulkkinen
4.—31.10.2026
Open: Wed—Fri 14—18, Sat—Sun 12—16
Opening on Saturday 3.10. 17—20, welcome!
The group exhibition “Today I practiced drawing fire / convex, caterpillar, gray images, in holes, sun-faded cycles” by artists Essi Immonen, Anna-Stiina Korhonen, and Eeva-Maija Pulkkinen has been created as a result of Oksasenkatu 11’s open call focused on collaboration. The artists have spent a year reflecting specifically on the nature and possibilities of cooperation, developing the entire exhibition together through a process. The result of this long shared process is a delicate exhibition that combines glimpses of the three artists’ lives and work.
The artists’ collaboration over the past year has enabled them to share the private details related to their work and the hidden, personal meanings—initially with their team members and curator, and then with the public. The first part of the exhibition’s title, “Today I practiced drawing fire,” describes these starting points and collaborative processes. Practicing drawing fire was a real event; the title of the exhibition reflects the stages of the process as a literal spoken phrase and a metaphor for the fleeting, hard-to-capture moments.
The second part of the title, “convex, caterpillar, gray images, in holes, sun-faded cycles,” reflects everyday details that may be seen as meaningful or not. For some, these things may seem significant and revealing, while to others they might appear entirely random and impossible to grasp. The drawings in the exhibition concretely include a caterpillar; the sculptures are convex; the sun fades cycles, and light melts routines—though the words and works could be entirely different. Convex appears concave from a different angle, and the implied absence suggests presence. The exhibition examines both meanings and non-meanings, absence and presence, connections and ruptures. Significance and randomness are subjective, tied to individual perception. A list of words and a series of objects can acquire meaning in a certain context. The mind seeks connections.
The exhibition unites disparate details of three lives into one. It contains flashes from three realities—images and forms—that, when combined in the same space, generate strange and unique associations. The artists are united by their approach to art through forms. Forms are central, and the apparent randomness of the themes encourages viewers to reflect on their own content within the works.
The harmony and surprise between the artworks and their content, the change of mood in the installation, and the tensions emphasise how a small shift or change in perspective can transform the entire perceived reality.
– Athanasía Aarniosuo, Curator
Essi Immonen works with sculpture, installation, and various materials. In her works, she explores the constructed world and its materials—the meanings embedded within them and our relationship to these. Her works often feature themes of leaving traces; material leaves an imprint on another, and a mark is left behind.
Anna-Stiina Korhonen is a visual artist working with painting and drawing. In her narrative works, she explores universal human and autobiographical themes. Figures, objects, and symbols are key elements in Korhonen’s storytelling.
Eeva-Maija Pulkkinen is a visual artist whose work revolves around sculpture, with an interest in the language of form and materials, as well as stories. Recently, her work—both solo and collaborative—has been connected to ideas about systems of collaboration, their failures, play, encounters between things, bodies, and machines, as well as longing and the need for connection.