CORPUS
Monoma Heikkiläntie 2024 exhibitions
Sirja Moberg: Corpus
13.9.– 13.10.2024. Lauttasaari, Helsinki
The works in Sirja Moberg's Corpus exhibition bring together the artist's recent works in the
common spaces of the Heikkiläntie 7 workspace building in Lauttasaari. The photographic works
address the invisible and mysterious nature through meteorite craters, soil, the cycle of life, and
themes related to deep time and geomancy. The exhibition offers perspectives on contemplating the
relationship with nature through experimental photographic representations. The exhibition is part
of Helsinki Design Week's Open Studios event.
MUUTOS.ART ARTHOUSE
Light Geomancy (Valon Geomantia)
Sekatekniikka installaatio (Lumen-printti ja kemigrammi,
Maa-aines, Skannaus, Pigmenttivedos)
Upeart/ Muutos.art-Taidetalon ryhmänäyttely, Tampere
14.6. –31.8.2024
Muutos.art-taidetalo valtaa entisen toimistotalon Tampereen Ratinanrannassa kesällä 2024. Light Geomancy-teokseeni sain inspiraation Muutos.art-talon maaperän syvyyksiin ja geomantian ennustusmenetelmään piiloutuvista
aihealueista. Hyödynsin rakennuksen pihapiirin kivi- ja eloperäistä maa-ainesta sekä maaperästä valmistamaani nestettä materiaaleina ilman kameraa syntyville valokuville. Työn teemoina ovat maaperä, siitä ennustaminen, näkymätön luonto valokuvissa sekä mystillinen luontoyhteys.
Ensimmäinen osa installaatiota on pöytä, jonka päälle asettelin valoherkkiä valokuvapapereita ja mm. kiviä sekä hiekkaa valottumaan näyttelyn ajaksi. Toinen osa seinällä koostuu hiilipiirros ja lumen-printti & kemigrammi-muodostelmasta, minkä printit toteutin samalla metodilla kuin pöydän kuvat. Kuva-aiheena alttarimaiselle kokonaisuudelle on tamperelaisen taidetalon (ex-toimistotalon) pihapiiristä kerätty maaperä, joka sitoo teoksen ympäristöönsä ja toimii katsojan tulkittavana ennusteena.
now(here). Lapinlahti
now(here). group exhibition
𝑳𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝑩𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝑨𝒍𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒚 (𝑺𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒊𝒃𝒊 𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒓𝒂 𝒍𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒔)
Pigment print (scan of a chemigram & lumen print, e.g. soil from Lapinlahti surroundings was used in the exposure process)
3.7.-30.8.2024
Galleria Kuja, Lapinlahti, Helsinki
Now(here). was an exhibition of 35 finnish and international visual artists that filled the halls of Galleria Kuja and Käytävägalleria in Lappari and Kammio in the park for summer 2024 in Helsinki. The exhibition emphasised the important case of keeping lapinlahti as a cultural, art, mental health and community space, not a corporate and privatised utility. Now(here). was curated by the tourist, Benjamin Phillips Nozdrachev. During the exhibiton over 3000 new signatures were signed in a petition for supporting saving Lapinlahti.
The Underlying: Porvoon Taidehalli
The Underlying
Solo exhibition
Porvoon Taidehalli (Porvoo Art Hall), Porvoo FIN
16.2.–24.3.2024
Sirja Moberg’s exhibition ”The Underlying” unfolds in Porvoo Art Hall in ritualistic formations. Thephoto and video artworks explore the invisible, the mystical, and the diverse nature through soil, the lifecycle, plant life, and the hidden deep time in landscapes. The exhibition also presents soil chromato- graphies, pigment transfer works, as well as object and sculpture installations. The exhibition offers perspectives on reflections over our relationship with nature through experimental photographic methods.
Soil is a unifying factor in Moberg’s work, which essentially includes fieldwork trips to nature reserves’ forests, meteorite craters, and the fells of Sápmi nature. From these locations, she has gathered materials and experiences for her works. With the works exhibited at the Porvoo Art Hall, Moberg aims to represent the deep time crystallized in meteorites and trace fossil stones from Kilpisjärvi: How do these extremely slow changes in cosmic and geological time compare to the brief span of human life?
In addition to directing her camera towards these earthy elements, as seen in the video work ”Kuonjarjohka” and in the video made with a microscope, ”A Childhood Dream – Meteorites”, Moberg uses sand, stones, and plants as materials in the creation of analog photographs. The exhibition also showcases an alternative way of utilizing soil chromatography, originally developed for agriculture. Chromatographies that make useof soil and forest materials along with photo chemicals allow the viewer to, as it were, look into the earth and reflect on the vitality that originates from it.
”The connection to nature and its mysteries is at the core of my artistic practise. I am particularly puzzledby how photography acts as a revealer, concealer, and delimiter of these aspects, as well as of reality itself. Experimental photographic processes and their combination with other artistic techniques are the driving force that moves my work forward,” Moberg explains. The artist has also drawn inspiration from the ancientFinnish belief that the underworld was the night side of all existence. Therefore, ”The Underlying” exhibition looks beneath the surface of reality to things that do not appear to the naked eye.
VARTIOSAARI OPEN STUDIOS
The Vartiosaari Series
Vartiosaari Artists House Open Studios
Disappearing Lumen print, photogram
12,7 x 17,8 cm
Aavasaksa
Blueberry- and moss chromatography
50 x 30c m
2023, Vartiosaari island, Helsinki
A group exhibition with the member artists of Vartiosaari Artists House.
HORIZONT
Demolition Art House
The Promise of Jatuli IIMixed media installation
Horizont Demolition Art House group show,
Tornio-Haparanda, FIN/SWE
4.8.-23.9.2023
Kuonarjohka
Video and sound installation
Horizont Demolition Art House group show,
Tornio-Haparanda, FIN/SWE
4.8.-23.9.2023
Horizont was a community art project which creates a new bridge through art between Haparanda-Tornio at the border of Sweden-Finland. The aim of the project was to create a dialogue between the young people of Haparanda and Tornio and the local inhabitants.
Young people on both sides of the border could meet, plan and create art together. The project had two parts, one part was created in Tornio and the other part in Haparanda.The project involved two buildings, Röyttäntie 4, an apartment building in Tornio, Finland and Tornedalsskolan school in Haparanda, Sweden.
Artists and groups created art in June and July 2023, and a two-part exhibition
was held in both buildings during August and September 2023.
The Underlying: Gallery Rajatila
The Underlying
Galleria Rajatila, Tampere 06/2023, FIN
Solo exhibition
In The Underlying exhibition, Sirja Moberg's works spread in Gallery Rajatila's upstairs in ritual-like formations. Moberg's themes intertwine around the soil, cycle of life, plant life and deep time in nature. The exhibition constructs of video works, soil chromatograms, pigment transfer canvases and object & sculpture installations. The exhibition also includes Moberg's analog photographs which she made during her artis in residency period at CYAN Darkroom, Oslo, in the spring of 2023.
The soil is a unifying factor in Moberg's work, which essentially includes work trips to the forests of nature reserves, meteorite craters and the fell of the Sámi Land. The exhibition in Gallery Rajatila combines these projects into a single whole, and offers perspectives on the significance of the soil and the nature relationship through photographic representations. The exhibition is a continuation of the soil-themed exhibition Soil Experiments, at Photo Center Nykyaika in the winter of 2023.
”The connection to nature and nature mysticism are at the core of my artistic practise. In particular, I'm fascinated by the reality claim and agency of a photograph as a revealer, concealer and delimiter of reality. Experimental photographic processes and combining them with other art techniques are always fascinating to me and the driving force behind my work," says Moberg.
Moberg is interested in the state of our planet's cosmic interaction, and she experiences meteorites that strike the Earth as a communicator of that interaction. In her exhibition works, she examines the deep time crystallizing in meteorites and trace fossil rocks from Kilpisjärvi. In addition to placing elements of the soil as the object of her camera, as in Kuonarjohka video piece and in a video made with a microscope called A Childhood dream – Meteorites, the artist uses sand and rocks as material for the completion of an image in her photograms. The exhibition also displays an alternative way of using soil chromatography developed for agriculture in the context of photographic art. Chromatographies utilizing soil and forest materials and photochemistry give the viewer the opportunity to 'see' inside the earth and reflect on the life force emanating from it.
The exhibition has been supported by the Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taike).
Thank you to the Finnish Bioart Society and Kumpula Geological Collections (Luomus).
CYAN Darkroom Artist in Residency
Oslo, Norway- as a part of Nordic Analog Network residency programme
Sirja Moberg: Residency exhibition
CYAN Gallery, 5th of May 2023, Oslo Norway
CYAN gallery presented me as invited to Nordic Analog Network's Artist in Residence programme at the CYAN Darkroom in April-May in Oslo. My exhibition works included photograms made with caffenol developer, soil- and forest material chromatographs, chemigrams and lumen prints. My darkroom work was experimental and exploratory, while at the same time it had a focus on bioart and a scientific method via soil chromatographs. The chemigrams include using a chemical mixture which contains e.g. parts of soil and forest materials such as lichens and moss in the 'Light beings alchemy I-II' prints. I displayed the chemigrams both in analog form and as pigment prints, in which they have been scanned digitally in order to preserve the colors and physical texture that's been created on top of the photographic paper during its exposing to light. For me, the alternative processes in the residency’s darkroom photographs had a certain sense of magic and I sought ways of revealing something invisible, abstract or unknown in the nature and bring it visible and multi-meaningful via the freedom of art.
CYAN Darkroom Residency/ Nordic Analog Network
Cyan Darkroom Artist in Residency
Nordic Analog Network
Oslo, Norway, April-May 2023
I was invited as the Finnish photo artist to Nordic Analog Network's Artist in Residence at the CYAN darkroom in April-May. In a series of artist residencies set up as darkroom exchanges the Nordic darkrooms invites analog photo artists to come and work in professional darkrooms. At Cyan Darkroom I worked to investigate the soil and plant life through the collection ofmaterial samples and the creation of analogue darkroom images of them. Through a series of soil chromatograph prints, fotograms, lumen prints and chemigrams, I looked at both the representation of the subject through abstract visual patterns and interpretable information collected in photographic paper.
Sirja Moberg: Soil Experiments
Soil Experiments
Photographic Centre NYKYAIKA, Tampere
11.2.-13.3.2023
Moberg’s artistic field trips to the forests of nature reserves, meteorite craters and the fell of the Sámi Land combine her interest in soil. The Soil Experiments exhibition in Photographic Center Nykyaika combines these projects into a single whole, and offers perspectives on the significance of the soil and the nature relationship through photographic representations. The exhibition constructs of working material created during these trips: soil chromatographies, pigment transfer canvases, photographic and video works, and an installation.
The connection to nature and nature mysticism are at the core of Moberg’s art. In particular, she is fascinated by the reality claim and agency of a photograph as a revealer, concealer and delimiter of reality.
– In our culture, what nature photographs that focus on aesthetics do not show us, and what nature does not necessarily show to the impatient eye of the busyness of everyday life, is at the heart of my work. For example, the soil is a living entity under our feet, but we are constantly in a state of oblivion with it, as if in a dream, Moberg ponders.
Moberg’s work is inspired by some ideas of the book by philosopher Emanuele Coccia: The Life of Plants: A Metaphysics of Mixture (2020), according to which the earth is our planetary brains, the stone flesh of the planet and with it an active communicator through the underground roots and minerals of plants. Moberg is also interested in the state of our planet’s cosmic interaction, which she experiences as a communicator of meteorites that strike the Earth. In her exhibition works, she examines meteorites and the deep time crystallizing in the landscapes of craters and trace fossil rocks from Kilpisjärvi.
In the exhibition, the chromatography series which uses soil, forest materials and photographic chemistry gives the viewer the opportunity to ‘see’ inside the earth and reflect on the soil as a fundamental pillar of our lives. Soil chromatography is a method developed in the 50s for biodynamic agriculture to study the properties of cultivated soil visually. Moberg’s series of chromatography has been created for the preservation of biodiversity from a nature conservation perspective and from an artist’s personal perspective. In addition to placing elements of the soil as the object of her camera, as in the Kuonarjohka video piece and microscopic photographs of meteorites and trace fossil rocks, the artist uses sand and rocks as material for the completion of an image in her photograms.
The exhibition has been supported by the Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taike). Thank you to the Finnish Bioart Society and Kumpula Geological Collections (Luomus).
Kuoriaisefekti: Merkkejä näkymättömästä
elämästä ja yhteyksistä/ The Beetle Effect
Patvinsuo, Kuuslahti, Evo, Seitseminen, Oulanka, Pyhä-Häkki, Kuuslahti
Soil-, lichen-, moss-, beard moss and tree bark chromatography on paper
50 x 60 cm, 30 x 60 cm
Kuoriaisefekti: Merkkejä näkymättömästä elämästä ja yhteyksistä -group show
Natural History Museum Luomus/
Luonnontieteellinen Keskusmuseo Luomus
Helsinki
2022
16.9.–20.11.2022
Oulanka, Evo
Soil-, moss-, lichen chromatography
50 x 60 cm
Patvinsuo, Kuuslahti
Soil- and lichen chromatography
50 x 60 cm
Evo, Kuuslahti
Lichen and beard moss chromatography
50 x 60 cm
Pyhä-Häkki, Seitseminen
Soil chromatograhy
50 x 30 cm
Kuuslahti
Tree bark chromatography
50 x 30 cm
“Taidenäyttelyä ovat innoittaneet seitsemän uhanalaista kovakuoriaista ja yksi lude:korpikolva, kaskikeiju, haavansahajumi, lahokapo, punahärö, mäntyhuppukuoriainen, havuhuppukuoriainen ja palolatikka. Lajikirjostamme lähes puolet on hyönteisiä, ja niillä on korvaamaton rooli luontomme monimuotoisessa kokonaisuudessa.
Moni hyönteinen on kuitenkin päätynyt uhanalaisten lajien punaiseen kirjaan. Esimerkiksi lahopuun väheneminen ja vanhojen metsien häviäminen uhkaavat monia lajeja.
Esillä olevat taideteokset ovat syntyneet kahden, vuosina 2021 ja 2022
Lammilla ja Porkkalanniemessä pidetyn Tieteen & Taiteen leirin hedelmänä. Leirit olivat paikka dialogille – mahdollisuus yhdistää tutkijoiden ja taiteilijoidenvoimat ja etsiä uusia näkökulmia luonnon monimuotoisuuteen.
Näyttelyn taiteilijat ovat Otso Havanto, Hannu Karjalainen, Heikki Lindgren, Sirja Moberg, Katri Naukkarinen, Susu Rytteri, Hanna Råst, Antti Tenetz, Fanny Varjo ja Joonas Ahlava.”
Helsinki Darkroom Festival
Suolaa, Metallia/ Salt, Metal
Öjberget, Söderfjärden & Valley of Time, Kilpisjärvi
30 x 30 cm
Soil chromatography on paper
Hippolyte x Korjaamo, Helsinki
2022
“Darkness, red light, timer, rubber gloves, respiratory masks, developers, stop baths, fixers, detergents, toners, pliers and brushes – welcome to the world of chemical photography! The joint exhibition at Hippolyte Korjaamo presents the broad and diversefield of analog photography in Finland.
The name of the exhibition, Salt, Metal, refers to the chemistry based process of photography in which photosensitive salts are exposed to light and then developed into metal. In addition to the traditional silver gelatin prints and chromogenic colour prints, the exhibition presents for example cyanotype, lumen prints, daguerreotype, wet plate, polaroid, carbon print, bromoil print, photopolymer and chromatography.
The joint exhibition presents in total 28 artists: Sara Ahde, Ulla-Maija Alanen, Petri Anttonen, Pira Cousin, Lauri Eriksson, Cosmo Grossbach, Paula Haapalahti, Jenni Haili, J. Hartelin, Antti Hietala, Olli Jaakkola, Kristian Jalava, Markku Joutsen, Jaakko Kilpiäinen, Lars Kronlund, Natalia Kopkina, Maria Kärkkäinen, Katri Lassila, Tuomas Linna,
Sirja Moberg, Viivi Nieminen, Anna Niskanen, Marko Rantanen, Jussi Ronkainen,Mikael Siirilä, Ida Taavitsainen, Henna Tyrväinen and Jukka Vaso.
The exhibition is organised by the Finnish Darkroom Association in collaboration with the Association of Photographic Artists. It is part of the Helsinki Darkroom Festival, organised for the first time by the Finnish Darkroom association and supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation. The aim of the comprehensive and future-oriented
festival is to bring together different actors, researchers and artists working with analog photography. Impression Remains, the international main exhibition of the festival is open at the Finnish Museum of Photography until 15 May. ”
POLARIS
The Baltic Ripple Effect
Dominik Fleischmann, Eulalia Ramírez, Sabina Friman, Sirja Moberg, Terhi Adler
Installation
Helsinki Design Week 2020:
Designs For a Cooler Planet exhibition
Aalto University Campus, Espoo
The Baltic Sea is not only one of the busiest shipping routes in the world but alsoone of the most vulnerable biospheres; afragile cosystem that is suffering from human impact. The artists, designers and photographers expose threats to the fragile ecosystem of the Baltic Sea.
Exhibition documentation by Dominik Fleischmann
Additional collaborators: Johanna Karjalainen, Elina Nikkinen, Mark McGuinness and IMAGE magazine
Mentor: Päivi Häikiö
Mitä huomenna syötäisiin?
Mitä huomenna syötäisiin?
IMAGE magazine editorial 05/2020 issue
Terhi Adler, Sabina Friman, Johanna Karjalainen,
Sirja Moberg, Eulalia Ramirez
Polaris is a study project in which students from
Visual Communication Design and Photography departments in Aalto University researched the state of the Baltic Sea from the point of view of the climate change. The article is a collaboration between Aalto University and IMAGE. It is realized by Terhi Adler, Sabina Friman, Johanna Karjalainen, Sirja Moberg and Eulalia Ramirez.
PARANVOI
Paranvoi
Mixed media installation
Emily Carr University of Art + Design, CAN
2019
Without any sense organs Paranvoi (Fuligo septica) can suddenly rise from it’s hiding place and navigate after moist circumstances and nutrition. Paranvoi is concerned as a slime fungus which crawls slowly on rotten wood or stumps searching for food. It can join anoter plasmodium or change it’s form or colour with age. When it turns dry it’s reproductive spores spread everywhere carried by air.
The finnish name for the fungus comes from an ancient mythological creature ‘Para’. Myth says that it stole butter from houses and dropped it into the woods.
The installation seen at Emily Carr Uni is a continuation for previous my Paranvoi works. The installation is based on the idea and myth that Paranvoi could also be seen in a form of a roll of thread.
Photo: Maria West
Paranvoi
Pigment print
B-VOLUTION group exhibition, 2014
B-Galleria, Turku FIN
Without any sense organs Paranvoi (Fuligo septica) can suddenly rise from it’s hiding place and navigate after moist circumstances and nutrition. Paranvoi is concerned as a slime fungus which crawls slowly on rotten wood or stumps searching for food. It can join anoter plasmodium or change it’s form or colour with age. When it turns dry it’s reproductive spores spread everywhere carried by air.
The finnish name for the fungus comes from an ancient mythological creature ‘Para’. Myth says that it stole butter from houses and dropped it into the woods.
Paranvoi photographic collage series concentrates on alternative ways of performing photography. Customary ways of looking photography doesn’t apply to the pieces. Creating new realities becomes possible when a photograph is being made. The stream of pictures expands like a mycelium which kidnaps new surfaces of a photograph. Paranvoi doesn’t create reality. It is a product of imaginary, memories, mental images and emotions. The inspiration for creating my collages comes from this slime fungus that acts like it has a consciousness of its own in its activities. The project has been ongoing since 2013. The most recent part of the series was in a joint exhibition: Perintö:30 in Työhuone 33, Turku in autumn 2017.
Entities of Light & Shadow be gone
Entities of Light
Two channel video installation
Virtaus exhibition, 2017
Brinkkala Gallery, Turku FIN
The piece is a part of The Crater Lake Project. The video work was inspired by the unexplained light phenomenon 'Paasveen piru' (The Devil of Lake Paasvesi) observed in Paasvesi in Orivesi. The light phenomenon has been observed over a period of several hundred years, and one idea suggests that the phenomenon could be related to the formation of the lake, as the round-shaped lake was created by a meteor impact.
The starting point for the work was the stories I had heard and read about the devil in Paasvesi and my interest in natural phenomena that are classified as supernatural. In this topic, I am interested in the camera's ability to record and, on the other hand, what the camera does not see. Can the camera see what the human eye cannot? What is the significance of footage classified as supernatural?
Shadow be gone
Varjo, Poistu
Shadow be gone
Mixed media on roll paper, Size varies
Virtaus exhibition, 2017
Brinkkala Gallery, Turku FIN
Exhibition documentation from private exhibition with visual artists Lilli Haapala, Outimaija Hakala and Anni Saijonkivi at Brinkkala Gallery, Turku.
In the work, I deal with making the subconscious of the human mind visible through art. Art acts as a bridge between different worlds. More important to me than the end result was the production process, in which the work was created as if dictated by the subconscious without prior planning. It was born out of the need to purify stagnant energy and work it into a concrete and visible object from the perception of the mind. Shadow, be gone is a mixed technique of drawing and painting on a roll of paper.
UNDEFINED PRESENCE
UNDEFINED PRESENCE
Marjaniemi Nature trail, Turku
Exhibition documentation/ Sirja Moberg 2015
Mirror, mannequin
55 x 185 cm
The piece was a part of my thesis exhibition from my BA studies in Turku University of Applied Sciences - Turku Arts Academy.
Undefined presence was situated in Marjaniemi nature trail in Ruissalo, Turku 2015.
The presenting environment of a photograph doesn’t always have to be a public (or private) wall or a room. The artwork of the exhibition Undefined presence were alongside a nature trail. Inspiration for my pieces came from the surrounding nature, my own nature relationship and of the amazement that I feel towards the essence of photography. I pondered on the communication between a photograph and nature and what is undefined in a photograph. I wanted to see what kind of presence a photograph has in nature.
A mirror sculpture that is also named Undefined presence got its idea from a desire to represent a photograph in nature
in a way that’s not usual for a photograph. A photograph is like a mirror. A photograph is used to capture limited pieces of the environment. The mirror sculpture contains hundreds of reflections: photographs of its surroundings in the same way. The work reflected the uncontrollable nature with its broken surface. The same nature that people try to frame, examine and understand through cameras.
UNDEFINED PHOTOGRAPH
I, II, III, IV
Marjaniemi Nature trail, Turku
Exhibition documentation/ Sirja Moberg 2015
80 x 61cm, 75 x 98cm, 100 x 128cm, 24 x 31cm
Undefined photograph I-III from my thesis exhibition
of TUAS are pigmentprints and at the same time
photos of the original chromogenic colour proof sheets. I picked out the original proof sheets from the trashcan in a color darkroom. They are photopaper that are used to clean the darkrooms printing machine with. As a result of the cleaning process comes out an abstract photograph
that is born by a coincidence. Its meanings are limitless.
These ‘photographs by chance’ got me thinking about questions: what is the essence of a photograph? What is a photograph? Trash turned out to be meaningful and multi significance artwork. I scanned and printed pigmentprints of the original proof sheets and presented them in nature by hanging the pigmentprints in trees. I brought them in nature because a viewer automatically tries to perceive landscapes, forms and natures light phenomenons in these abstract colors and shapes. It’s interesting to ponder what kind of films and photographs these images have been formed of. What kind of landscapes, environments, things and people or how much light and color has been captured in time and space so that the colour machines proof sheets
have turned out to be just like these photos.
The piece was a part of my thesis exhibition from my art degree studies in Turku University of Applied Sciences - Turku Arts Academy.
HUMAN PORTRAIT
Marjaniemi Nature trail, Turku
Exhibition documentation/ Sirja Moberg 2015
Pigmentprint on film, frame
27 x 34, 3cm
What kind of presence does a filmed portrait of a human being have in the nature? The presenting environment
and its connection to the surroundings rose in an important role in my exhibition which I built alongside the nature trail
of Marjaniemi. The photo is my self-portrait and it was framed and hanged in a cavity of a tree. The cavity for it’s part looks like
nature’s own frame.
Looking at the portrait a viewer places oneself in front of one kind of an altar by nature. The tree in question has got an extra object by its side. Why? (art)objects that don’t belong in the nature awakcontradictory thoughts in the viewers mind and I continue exploring this. Human is a part of nature but doesn’t always remember it. Western peope often place themselves above nature and live in square environment and immortalizes oneself in square portraits.
© Sirja Moberg 2024