Exposition
GIRL ARMY – Narrative painting in space TYTTÖARMEIJA – Kerronnallinen maalaus tilassa Katja Tukiainen (2024)
Katja Tukiainen
About this exposition
ABSTRACT
Girl army – Narrative painting in space
In my doctoral research in fine arts, I study narrative
painting in space and examine the narratives of spatial
painting series and other spatial assemblies of paintings.
My paintings’ imagery deals with girlhood, womanhood,
and the colour pink. A girl army – a wild and non-vi-
olent group of girls – acts as a guide on my journey of
exploration. My paintings’ girls take over various spaces.
My artistic research includes a written section in
which I report how my research proceeds, enabling me
to find new ideas through verbal language. The written
section deals with my artistic work process and non-ver-
bal knowledge, and it describes how the search for words
adds to my understanding of narrative, narrators, focal-
isation, and immersivity. As artistic work and writing
blend into a trajectory, I establish the words alongside
non-verbal knowledge, and, in the end, I venture to ob-
serve my works’ feminism.
My research includes three public exhibitions of works
that explore painting narratives, the colour pink, and
placing in various spaces. The exhibitions took place dur-
ing a period of ten years, as follows: My solo exhibition,
Playground – My work is my pleasure, was on display at
Galleria Korjaamo in autumn 2009, the painting instal-
lation Paradis k (Kidnap) was part of the Eyeballing! ex-
hibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma
in 2012, and my painting series Paradis r (Rascal) was
on display in the Vallaton – Rascal group exhibition at
the Vantaa Art Museum Artsi during 2017–2018. My
research’s main stages are closely related to these three
exhibitions included in my research. My research ques-
tions follow, along with the works, a painting’s simultane-
ous, linear, and temporally stretched narrative. I explore
how paintings, in different spaces, turn into stories and
immersive experiences, inviting viewers inside of them.
I invite the reader into a story in which I wander,
wearing a trainer on one foot and a high-heeled shoe
on the other. I compare painting with a comfortable
trainer and the painting’s analytical observation with
a high-heeled shoe. As an artist-researcher, I feel like
I am standing near my paintings in contrapposto. My
research shows how the heel wears out and the words
become familiar little by little. Theorists Mieke Bal and
Kai Mikkonen, as well as various other researchers, art-
ists, and their works, support my journey. Written lan-
guage, too, can be wild and experimental, and it is the
very element that turns my works into a form that can
be verbally shared.
Verbalising my research has revealed that a part of my
works’ narrative becomes complete only when I leave my
workspace and the works are exposed to views and inter-
pretations. During my research, I realised the diversity of
interpretations and the extent of factors that have influ-
enced my work. The key results of my research include
the understanding that an artist’s research process opens
to be shared and followed through words. The definitions
suggested by words do not invalidate a painting’s liberty
to be completely indefinable, but they help to understand
the various ways a painting’s narrative works.
Katja Tukiainen 8 March 2022
| type | research exposition |
|---|---|
| keywords | narrative, Painting, spatial, Girls empowerment |
| date | 27/09/2024 |
| published | 30/09/2024 |
| last modified | 30/09/2024 |
| status | published |
| affiliation | Uniarts Helsinki |
| copyright | Katja Tukiainen, Uniarts Helsinki |
| license | CC BY-NC-ND |
| url | https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/3034382/3034381 |
| published in | University of the Arts Helsinki |
| portal issue | 2022. Uniarts Helsinki RC publications in 2022 |
| external link | https://taju.uniarts.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/7534/Tukiainen_Katja_2022.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |
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