Terhi Hulkko and Heli Leiviskä started to work together in 2016. The smallest drawings (size A5) they sent to each other back and forth by post, hence the name Letter Project (Kirjeprojekti in Finnish). The bigger works they have painted together in the same place.
At the beginning they agreed not to have any rules or restrictions. However, the mind seemed to set them up. They were sensitive not to draw over the lines made by the other - not to mess with each other’s markings. They have been fascinated to learn that they both have their own boundaries, they can recognize them and accept their existence and finally even break them on a paper!
Without boundaries there is no interaction. Especially in this project the interaction has been more important to them than the result. They can immerse deep into their own drawing and at the same time they can be aware of the impulses caused by the other. They can react to each other’s markings on the paper, to each other’s movement, to sounds of a pen blade and to their own feelings and thoughts.
The goal is to give and to take space mutually, to touch, to surprise, to find something new. The artwork is ready when they no longer want to make any markings on it and it still breathes.
The Letter Project is still in progress. So far they have had three exhibitions: Gallery Alli (Kerava) 2017, Jetty Barracks Gallery (Helsinki) 2019 and Gallery Theodor (Loviisa) 2020.
(21.8.2021)
