Elsa Salonen
Basic information
b. 1984, Turku
Fine Artist
Residence: Asuu ja työskentelee Berliinissä ja Suomessa
Contact information
Email: me@elsasalonen.com
Artist’s Statement
My works connect metaphysical dimensions to those biological truths that form our basic concepts of the world. They are situated somewhere between installation, painting and conceptual art and marked by the influence of alchemy and especially the idea of a ‘quintessence’ or an eternal force running through and connecting all humans and nonhumans.
Alchemy has led me to experiment directly with natural materials. Now I distill colours from flowers, process the colours further and bleach plants to make them appear entirely white. In addition I prepare my own pigments from a range of specific natural materials - from meteorites to volcanic ash - according to the various conceptual requirements of each individual work.
The practice is based on a notion that most organisms, both in the plant and in the animal world, seem to lose their colours in death - flowers wither and bodies blanch. Thus, all the colours in nature become signs of the presence of essential life energy. In cycles of nature this energy doesn’t disappear, but changes its form of manifestation. Mouldering organisms become matter for new life. Furthermore, almost all of the elements of living organisms are known to have originated from ancient, dead stars. According to the best scientific estimate, our atoms will also, in the distant future, return to space and possibly form new stars. Both in short and in immeasurably long time frames, life energy manifests itself as eternal.
Working with natural materials deepened my interest in old Finnish beliefs about the nature, which I then compared with the local animist traditions in artist residencies both in Indonesia and Colombia. In my research, deep ecology, the rights of all forms of life to live regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs, is united to animist recognitions. Animal and plant beings aren’t only equal to human beings, but at times wiser than us. Rather than marvelling only at our own skills to find the right medicinal herbs, why not change perspective to explore how it is that plants themselves have developed within them the remedies to cure humans and animals alike?
These ideas aren’t necessarily in contradiction with the contemporary scientific view, but potentially supported by it. In fact, one of the main goals of my practice is to bring together science and mysticism and to move towards a holistic balance as in alchemy in its original, uncorrupted state. Through art, one has the possibility to keep alive the discussion about thoughts, that are able to give us hope and meanings.
Alchemy has led me to experiment directly with natural materials. Now I distill colours from flowers, process the colours further and bleach plants to make them appear entirely white. In addition I prepare my own pigments from a range of specific natural materials - from meteorites to volcanic ash - according to the various conceptual requirements of each individual work.
The practice is based on a notion that most organisms, both in the plant and in the animal world, seem to lose their colours in death - flowers wither and bodies blanch. Thus, all the colours in nature become signs of the presence of essential life energy. In cycles of nature this energy doesn’t disappear, but changes its form of manifestation. Mouldering organisms become matter for new life. Furthermore, almost all of the elements of living organisms are known to have originated from ancient, dead stars. According to the best scientific estimate, our atoms will also, in the distant future, return to space and possibly form new stars. Both in short and in immeasurably long time frames, life energy manifests itself as eternal.
Working with natural materials deepened my interest in old Finnish beliefs about the nature, which I then compared with the local animist traditions in artist residencies both in Indonesia and Colombia. In my research, deep ecology, the rights of all forms of life to live regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs, is united to animist recognitions. Animal and plant beings aren’t only equal to human beings, but at times wiser than us. Rather than marvelling only at our own skills to find the right medicinal herbs, why not change perspective to explore how it is that plants themselves have developed within them the remedies to cure humans and animals alike?
These ideas aren’t necessarily in contradiction with the contemporary scientific view, but potentially supported by it. In fact, one of the main goals of my practice is to bring together science and mysticism and to move towards a holistic balance as in alchemy in its original, uncorrupted state. Through art, one has the possibility to keep alive the discussion about thoughts, that are able to give us hope and meanings.
Current information
2021Jochen Hempel Gallery, Leipzig, Germany
WAMx, Turku City Art Museum, Finland
Ama Gallery, Helsinki
2020
Aboagora, Turku, Finland
2019
Schwartzsche Villa, Berlin
The Nordic Embassies in Berlin
Galerìa del Colombo Americano de Medellín, Colombia
2018
Miguel Urrutia Art Museum, Bogotá
Lissone Museum of Contemporary Art, Milan
