Moderneja ryijyjä, metritavaraa ja käsityötä : Tekstiilitaide ja nykyaikaistuva taideteollisuus Suomessa maailmansotien välisenä aikana

Modern ryijys, fabric by the yard and handicrafts. Finnish textile art and modernizing applied art during the inter-war years Textile art was in the 1920s and 1930s in the front rank of Finnish applied art and design. Modern ryijys, tapestries and fabrics by the yard by contemporary textile artists were on show in Finland and abroad. Textile art had also become interesting commercially, especially in interior textiles of modern homes. The research uses sources of the Ornamo Association of Decorative Artists, for example the Ornamo year books published from 1927, the Finnish Society of Crafts and Design and the country s only school of applied arts, the Central School of Arts and Crafts and the Museum of Applied Arts maintained by the society and also the national specialist organisation the Friends of Finnish Handicraft. It also refers to the magazines Käsiteollisuus and Kotiliesi. The art historical dissertation studies the renaissance of weaving art of the inter-war years in Finland. It problematizes the relation of the succesfull and appreciated textile art to the concept of breakthrough of Modernism (Functionalism). With the material from textile artists activities it questions the prevailing idea of slow modernization of Finnish applied art and design and challenges the polarization of craft and industry in the discourses of Modernisms of design. The public discussions about modernization of design and applied art where textile art and especially the ryijy got sometimes into difficult positions are interpreted as power struggles. After taking independence in 1917 the Finnish tradition of ryijy rugs was set as a symbol of the original culture of the young nation. The research studies the development of the so called art ryijy and the notions and meanings of hand weaving in the national context and also in relation to contemporary events in international applied art and design. It highlights the continuity of hand crafted production of textiles and the strong position of textile artists working in this field. The research opens new perspectives to Finnish textile artists by showing their activities as entrepreneurs in their own weaving studios or design studios and referring to their many relations and functions as pattern designers and educators in the growing handicraft industries.

Ruumiinkuvia! : Suomalainen performanssi- ja kehotaide 1980- ja1990-luvulla psykoanalyysin valossa

My PhD-thesis Body Images! Psychoanalytical Analysis of Finnish Performance and Body Art in the 1980s and 1990s considers Finnish performance and body art performed mainly by visual artists. In Part I, I chart the historical construction of performance art and its extension since the beginning of the 21st century. There are several wievs of the historical background of performance art. I introduce three different genealogies of performance art. One is Rose-Lee Goldberg s view. She connects performance art with the European avant-garde already at the beginning of the 20th century from futurists and dadaists to Russian avant-garde and the Bauhaus. I prefer to present performance art as contemporary art, which began to take shape in connection with visual arts in the 1950s and 1960s. The focus on the body is apparent in nearly all performance art. Nevertheless, throug the concept of body art I want to empasize the artist s body as the place of art. Body art (as part of performance art) functions as thematic and interpretive concept, which allows me to focus on performances where the questions of body image, narcissism, desire, language and pleasure are incorporated in particular intensive ways. In Part II, I explore the arrival of performance art in Finnish visual arts in the 1980s. I study the new generation s relation to earlier Finnish happenings (1960s) and performative actions in 1970 s. I briefly introduce performance groups of the 1980s art scene and consider their reception in media. The main focus is on the group Jack Helen Brut, in which I see many similarities to the so- called Theatre of Images. The goal of this part II is to provide historical context for the performance analysis that follows. In Part III, I develop the concept of body image which is my main theoretical term. The concept of body image is used according to Lacanian psychoanalytical theory, especially his considerations of mirror stages. My first mapping of body image, which I call imaginary body image, is based on Lacan s famous mirror stage article (1949). According to my reading, body image is narcistic and aggressive. The important concepts here are ego, imaginary, méconnaisance and alienation. In 1953 Lacan began to develop different version on mirror stage, in which he emphasized the primacy of symbolic dimension. It is not image, but language which constructs the foundations of body image. Central concepts in this chater are Other as language, ego-ideal, demand and desire. In the last chapter I connect the third version of the mirror stage to concepts of gaze, phantasy, real, jouissance and object a. In previous chapters I had considered body image in relation to ego. Now I explore it in relation to subject. In my reading the body image is fragile phenomen, which oscillates between yearning for coherence and phantasies of fragmented images. Part IV of the thesis begins with an introduction to the central concepts and debates in performace studies over the last few decades. Important concepts are presence, performativity and theatricality. The main substance of my thesis, however, is the performance analysis, which focuses on works by three Finnish artists and one Finnish group. The first analysis concerns the performance (1992) of Kimmo Schroderus. I discuss the relationship between narcissism and body art and the changes in demands projected on body images of men in recent decades in a Euro-American context. I also explore this performance in relation to the myth of Narcissus, which I reinterpret through Narcissus s aggression against his own body. The group Homo S is the main subject of the next analysis. I discuss the relationship between feminist art and performance art, especially in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. Homo S is different from this early performance art because of its anarchism, humor and rejection of all ideals. Homo S characterizes its performance Body Body (1983) as liberating vulgar feminism . Sociality and performance of erotic relations between women are central in Body Body. Pia Lindman s performances are the subjects of my third analysis. I study three of her performances: Olen muoto (1993), 17 and in love (1994) and Arranged views (1995). I interpret these performances as efforts to disperse the imaginary and symbolic structures of the body image. She constructs the peculiar object a and phantasy space of her own. In the last analysis I move from questions of image and gaze to a study of language, sound and jouissance. I discuss at a general level the performance of orality and helplesness (Hilflosigkeit) in body art. The central elements in Pentti Otto Koskinen s performances are the ear, listening and receptive gestures and postions. Perseveraatio (1998) can be understood representing as submission to the super-ego s power, which compels one to enjoy. I examine particularly closely the performance Maissi on hyvää ei missään nimessä maissia (1995), which I interpret as the return of a baby s body image to the liminal site of choice: language or jouissance?

Teollisuuden ja yhteiskunnan palveluksessa : Arkkitehti Bertel Liljequist (1885 - 1954) tuotantolaitosten suunnittelijana maailmansotien välisenä aikana

My thesis concerns the plans drawn up by architect Bertel Liljequist (1885 1954) for an industrial corporation and a city in Finland during the interwar years. These were two quite different clients: the Kymi Company operating in Kuusankoski and the City of Helsinki. My study includes the micro-examination of the wider social issues involved. That the industrial community and factories in Kuusankoski be constructed correctly in a way supporting corporate strategy was of primary importance for the company s operations. Through the planning process for Helsinki s abattoirs, I show how a city dealt with the twin problems of hygiene and increasing demand for food resulting from a growth in population. I clarify how society and its economic, political and class structures affected the practice of architecture and its expression in the built environment. I analyse how the different backgrounds and starting points of the clients affected the construction projects under study and architect Bertel Liljequist s work. In studying Liljequist as an industrial designer, I have considered it vital to ascertain the client s intentions and objectives within the framework of the prevailing social situation. I examine the meanings the client wished the architecture to express and also to communicate to those working in the factory and the area as well as to the workers living on company land. The social outlook of the owners and management of Kymi Company implicitly affected the appearance of the factory. A brick fairface for the factories was a safe and natural material at the beginning of the 1920s when taking into consideration the events of the 1918 Civil War. To have built a White factory in the style of a defence building would have been provocative. Outside the factory gates, however, the company supported White architecture. The company used the factory buildings to manifest its power and the dwellings to bind the workers and make them loyal to the company. Architecture was thus one way in which the company manifested its position as the higher and undisputed authority. The role of the City of Helsinki within the planning process was for its officials to provide expert opinions but also to arrange study trips for the architect and the abattoir s general manager. The city also decided on the standard of the design. The city s responsibility for the health of its inhabitants and the requirements of modern meat production can be seen in the minimal architecture and clear functionality of the plant. The architecture left no doubt about the trustworthiness of the modern city. Translation: Michael Wynne-Ellis

Approaching Sacred Pregnancy : The Cult of the Visitation and Narrative Altarpieces in Late Fifteenth-Century Florence

The study focuses on the Visitation as a narrative subject of altarpieces in late fifteenth-century Florence. Although the Visitation was a well-known story in both verbal and visual representations since the early medieval period, it became a popular subject of altarpieces only towards the end of the fifteenth century. In this study, the first part provides an overview of the complex religious and historical background to an emerging cult of the Visitation. Devotional practices focusing on the Visitation belong in a context of late medieval Marian devotion and in 1389 a new feast of the Visitation was introduced into the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church. Because of the ongoing schism within the Catholic Church, the feast was not unanimously accepted across Western Europe until the later part of the fifteenth century. Contrary to a widely disseminated view, the feast of the Visitation cannot be associated with Franciscan spirituality, but was rather a clearly defined Dominican project that primarily emphasised the importance of peace and unity within the Christian Church. Simultaneously with the gradual acceptance of the new feast, visual representations of the Visitation began to appear at the centre of altarpieces. The Visitation exemplifies an increasing preference for narrative subjects within the genre of the altarpiece. The second part of the study presents an analysis of the concept of the narrative altarpiece and highlights the complexities involved in combining a narrative content with the traditional devotional function of the altarpiece. In detailed case studies some prominent art works produced in Florence between 1490 and 1503 are discussed within a framework of contextual analysis, narrative theory and iconography. Altarpieces by Domenico Ghirlandaio, Piero di Cosimo and Mariotto Albertinelli represent visual manifestations of a cult of the Visitation with roots in late medieval devotional practices. At the same time, the altarpieces highlight the multiple functions of altarpieces in a culture where art works responded to a variety of social and religious needs. Building on earlier studies, each case study presents new insights and evidence not considered in previous art historical research.

Vikuroivia vilkaisuja : Ruumis, sukupuoli, seksuaalisuus ja visuaalisen kulttuurin tutkimus

The PhD dissertation "Bucking Glances: On Body, Gender, Sexuality and Visual Culture Research" consists of theoretical introduction and five articles published between 2002-2005. The articles analyze the position of visual representations in the processes of knowledge production on acceptable genders, bodies, and sexualities in contemporary Wes¬tern societies. The research material is heterogeneous, consisting of representations of contemporary art, advertisements, and fashion images. The ideological starting point of the PhD dissertation is the politics of the gaze and the methods used to expose this are the concepts of oppositional gaze, close reading, and resisting reading. The study situates visual representations in dialogue with the concepts of the grotesque and androgyny, as well as with queer-theory and theories of the gaze. The research challenges normative meanings of visual representations and opens up space for more non-conventional readings attached to femininity and masculinity. The visual material is read as troubling the prevailing heteronormative gender system. The dissertation also indicates how visual culture research utilizing the approach of queer theory can be fruitful in opposing and re-visioning changes in the repressive gender system. The article "A Heroic Male and A Beautiful Woman. Teemu Mäki, Orlan and the Ambivalence of the Grotesque Body" problematizes the concept of heroic masculinity through the analysis of the Finnish artist Teemu Mäki's masochistic performance The Good Friday (1989). It also analyzes cosmetic surgery, undertaken by the French artist Orlan, as a cultural tool in constructing and visualizing the contemporary, com¬mercial ideals of female beauty. The article "Boys Will Be Girls Will Be Boys Will Be Girls. The Ambivalence of Androgyny in Calvin Klein' Advertisements" is a close reading of the Calvin Klein perfume advertisement One (1998) in reference to the concept of androgyny. The critical point of the article is that androgynous male bodies allow the extension of the categorical boundaries of masculinity and homosexuality, whereas representations of androgynous women feed into the prevailing stereotypes of femininity, namely the fear of fat. The article "See-through Closet: Female Androgyny in the 1990s Fashion Images, New Woman and Lesbian Chic" analyzes the late 1990s fashion advertisements through the concept of female androgyny. The article argues that the figures of the masculine female androgynes in the late 1990s fashion magazines do not problematize the dichotomous gender binary. The women do not pass as men but produce a variation of heterosexual desirability. At the same time, the representations open up space for lesbian gazing and desiring. The article "Why are there no lesbian advertisements?" addresses the issue of femme gaze and desire in relation to heterosexual fashion advertisements from the British edition of the mainstream fashion magazine Vogue. The article considers possibilities for resistant femme visibility, identification, and desire. The article "Woman, Food, Home. Pirjetta Brander's and Heidi Romo's Works as Bucking Representations of Femininity" analyses the production and queering of heteronormative femininity and family through the analysis of art works. The article discusses how the term queer has been translated into Finnish. The article also introduces a new translation for the term queer: the noun vikuuri, i.e. faulty form and the verb vikuroida, i.e. to buck. In Finnish, the term vikuuri is the vernacular or broken form of the term figure, i.e. figuuri. Vikuuri represents all forms situated outside the norm and the normative.

Kansakunnan parhaaksi. : Suomalaiset naisten- ja lastensairaalat 1920 1940-luvulla arkkitehtonisena, lääketieteellisenä ja yhteiskunnallisena suunnittelukohteena

This dissertation addresses the modernization process of Finnish hospital architecture between the First and Second World War, with focus on facilities explicitly designed for women and children, which as special hospitals reflect specialization, a distinct feature of the modern era. The facilities considered in the study are the Salus hospital, Dr. Länsimäki s women s hospital, the Folkhälsan in Svenska Finland association s child-care institute, the Helsinki Women s Clinic, the Viipuri Women s Hospital, the Helsinki Children s Clinic and the Children's Castle (Lastenlinna) in Helsinki. The study considers hospital architecture as an architectural, medical and social object of design. The theoretical starting point and perspective are the views of the French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault (1925 1983) concerning the relationship of bio-power and architecture. Underlying the construction of health-care facilities for women and children were not only the desire to help but also issues of population policy, social policies, training and professionalization. In this study, hospital architecture is interpreted as reflecting developments in medicine, while also producing and reinforcing discourses associated with the ideologies of the time of design and construction. The results of the present research provide new information on the field of hospital design. The design of hospitals was no longer the sole prerogative of architects. Instead, modern hospital design involved the collaboration and networking of experts in various fields. During the period studied, the pavilion system was incorporated in hospital architecture in the block system, which was regarded as a rational. Rationalization was implemented upon the conditions of medical work. This led to spatial design in accordance with medical practices, through which norms were reinforced and created. An important aspect of the material is that the requirements of light, air, openness and hygiene created architecture in glass of an x-ray character, strongly associated with the element of discipline. The alliance of hygiene and architecture became a strategy for controlling the behaviour and encounters of people, for producing pedagogical and moral hygiene, and for reinforcing class hygiene. The modern hospital building also had to meet the requirements of aesthetic hygiene. Health-care facilities designed for women and children became production-oriented machinery, instruments for producing a healthy population and for reinforcing medical discourses.

Helsingin galleriakenttä, kentän muutokset ja positiot vuosina 1983-2009

Tutkielman aiheena on Helsingin taidegalleriat ja niiden muodostama galleriakenttä. Tutkielmassa tarkastellaan galleriakenttää, galleriakentän ja galleriatoiminnan muutoksia sekä gallerioiden asemia ja asemien muutoksia kentän sisällä vuosina 1983–2009. Tutkielman tavoitteena on toimia Helsingin galleriakentän ja sen lähihistorian perustutkimuksena ja galleriakentän sisäisten asemien rakentumisen analyysina. Tutkimuskysymykset ovat seuraavat: Millaisia muutoksia Helsingin taidegalleriakentässä, sen toimijajoukossa ja gallerioiden toiminnassa on tapahtunut 1980-luvun alkupuolelta 2000-luvun ensimmäisen vuosikymmenen loppuun tultaessa? Mitkä ja millaiset galleriat ovat tutkittavan ajanjakson eri vaiheissa muodostaneet keskeisten gallerioiden joukon, mihin tämä asema on perustunut ja miten galleriakentän sisäiset asemat ovat muuttuneet? Galleriakenttää analysoidaan ja tarkastellaan yhdistäen taidehistoriallisen perustutkimuksen menetelmiä taiteensosiologiseen analyysiin. Tutkielman teoreettinen näkökulma perustuu sosiologi Pierre Bourdieun kenttää koskevaan teoriaan. Teorian rooli on toimia työkaluna tutkittavan kentän ja sen toimijoiden asemien havainnoinnissa ja analyysissa. Tutkielman empiirinen aineisto muodostuu tutkielman tekijän laatimien 28 galleristin ja muun galleriakentän toimijan haastattelujen muodostamasta haastatteluaineistosta. Haastatellut edustavat 22 galleriaa. Niiden muodostama joukko koostuu yksityisistä gallerioista, taiteilijaliittojen gallerioista ja vaihtoehtoisiksi tai taiteilijavetoisiksi määriteltävissä olevista tutkitulla ajanjaksolla eri tavoin keskeisinä pidetyistä gallerioista. Haastattelujen ohella tärkeänä aineistona toimii tutkittavan ajanjakson lehtikirjoittelu. Sen osalta lähteenä on käytetty Helsingin galleriakenttää ja gallerioita koskevaa lehtikirjoittelua, joka on tallennettu Kuvataiteen keskusarkiston leikearkistoon. Lisäksi lähteinä ovat Taide-lehden vuosikerrat tutkittavalta ajalta. Galleriakentän lähihistorian tarkastelun pohjaksi tutkielmassa analysoidaan gallerioiden roolia kuvataiteen kentän portinvartijoina, galleriakentän toimijoiden näkemyksiä keskeisen gallerian aseman rakentumisesta ja gallerioita koskevia luokituksia ja ryhmityksiä. Tutkielman ytimen muodostaa luku, jossa käydään kronologisesti läpi galleriakentän muutoksia ja keskeisiä toimijoita tutkielmassa tarkastellulla ajanjaksolla. Lopuksi syvennetään kentän kronologisen kuvauksen pohjalta galleriakentän muutosten analyysia Bourdieun teorian ja käsitteiden avulla. Tutkielman yhtenä tuloksena on tutkittavan kentän ajanjakson hahmottuminen seuraaviksi jaksoiksi: vuodet 1983–1990, vuodet 1990–1997, vuodet 1997–2002 ja vuodesta 2002 alkanut kentän nykytilanteeseen sidostuva jakso. Jaksot hahmottuvat tarkastellun kentän, galleriatoiminnan ja kentällä kulloinkin keskeisten toimijoiden joukon muutosten pohjalta. Jaksojen liitoskohdat ovat muutosten tihentymiä kentän keskeisten toimijoiden joukossa. Jaksot liittyvät osittain myös yleisen taloustilanteen muutoksiin siltä osin kuin ne ovat vaikuttaneet galleriatoimintaan ja siihen, millainen galleriatoiminta ja mitkä toimijat kulloinkin ovat nousseet keskeisiksi. Tutkielman ydinluvussa tarkasteltava ja analysoitava kentän muutosten ja gallerioiden asemien kronologinen kuvaus muodostaa kokonaisuudessaan tutkielman tärkeimmät perustutkimukselliset tulokset. Tulosten loppupäätelminä tutkielmassa päädytään seuraavaan analyysiin. Galleriakentän muutokset sidostuvat kuvataiteen muutoksiin ja talouden nousu- ja laskukausiin, ne eivät kuitenkaan ole tämänkaltaisista ulkoisista tekijöistä johdettavissa. Gallerioiden asemien rakentuminen ja muutokset ovat kytköksissä kentän sisäisiin muutoksiin siten, että kentän toimijajoukon muutokset joko sidostuvat toisiinsa tai asettuvat samanaikaisiksi. Kentän asemien tila vaikuttaa siihen, millaisen aseman uusi galleria pyrkii ottamaan sekä millaisen aseman se saa kentällä ja mediassa. Kenttä näyttäytyy tilana, jossa toisen toimijan poistuminen kentältä luo aukkoja ja tilauksia toisten toimijoiden synnylle. Kentän asemien rakentuminen ja muutokset syntyvät toisaalta gallerioiden toiminnan ja niiden esittämän taiteen ja taiteilijoiden perusteella sekä toisaalta myös suhteessa gallerioiden jaotteluihin ja luokitteluihin. Kentän rakenteen muodostuessa kentän voimasuhteiden tilan kautta muodostuvat keskeisiksi koettujen gallerioiden joukon muutokset erityisen oleellisiksi sille, miten asemat kentällä ovat kulloinkin rakentuneet

Kriitkko Einari J. Vehmas ja moderni taide

The doctoral dissertation Critic Einari J. Vehmas and Modern Art deals with one of the central figures of the Finnish art scene and his work as an art critic, art museum curator and cultural critic. The main body of research material consists of the writings of Einari J. Vehmas (1902 1980) from 1937 to the late 1960s. Vehmas wrote art reviews for magazines, and from the year 1945 he was a regular art critic for one of the major newspapers in Finland. Vehmas was heavily inclined towards French literature and visual arts. Marcel Proust and Charles Baudelaire influenced his views on the nature of art from the late 1920s onwards. Vehmas is commonly regarded as the most influential art critic of post-war Finland. His writings have been referred to and cited in numerous research papers on Finnish 20th-century art. A lesser known aspect of his work is his position as the deputy director of the Ateneum Art Museum, the Finnish national gallery. Through his art museum work, his opinions also shaped the canon of modern art considered particularly Finnish following the second world war. The main emphasis of the dissertation is on studying Vehmas s writings, but it also illustrates the diversity of his involvement in Finnish cultural life through biographical documents. The long chronological span of the dissertation emphasises how certain central themes accumulate in Vehmas s writings. The aim of the dissertation is also to show how strongly certain philosophical and theoretical concepts from the early 20th century, specifically Wassily Kandinsky s principle of inner necessity and Henri Bergson s epistemology highlighting intuition and instinct, continued to influence the Finnish art discourse even in the early 1960s, in part thanks to the writings of Vehmas. Throughout his production, Vehmas contemplated the state and future of modern art and humanity. Vehmas used a colourful, vitalistic rhetoric to emphasise the role of modern art as a building block of culture and humanity. At the same time, however, he was a cultural pessimist whose art views became infused with anxiety, a sense of loss, and a desire to turn his back on the world.

Pietismin kuva - ikkuna yksityiseen hengellisyyteen : Johann Arndtin opetukset pietistisen embleemin perustana

The image of Pietism a window to personal spirituality. The teachings of Johann Arndt as the basis of Pietist emblems The Pietist effect on spiritual images has to be scrutinised as a continuum initiating from the teachings of Johann Arndt who created a protestant iconography that defended the status of pictures and images as the foundation of divine revelation. Pietist artworks reveal Arndtian part of secret, eternal world, and God. Even though modern scholars do not regarded him as a founding father of Pietism anymore, his works have been essential for the development of iconography, and the themes of the Pietist images are linked with his works. For Arndt, the starting point is in the affecting love for Christ who suffered for the humankind. The reading experience is personal and the words point directly at the reader and thus appear as evidence of the guilt of the reader as well as of the love of God. Arndt uses bounteous and descriptive language which has partially affected promoting and picturing of many themes. Like Arndt, Philipp Jakob Spener also emphasised the heart that believes. The Pietist movement was born to oppose detached faith and the lack of the Holy Ghost. Christians touched by the teachings of Arndt and Spener began to create images out of metaphors presented by Arndt. As those people were part of the intelligentsia, it was natural that the fashionable emblematics of the 17th century was moulded for the personal needs. For Arndt, the human heart is manifested as a symbol of soul, personal faith or unbelief as well as an allegory of the burning love for Jesus. Due to this fact, heart emblems were gradually widely used and linked with the love of Christ. In the Nordic countries, the introduction of emblems emanated from the gentry s connections to the Central Europe where emblems were exploited in order to decorate books, artefacts, interiors, and buildings as well as visual/literal trademarks of the intelligentsia. Emblematic paintings in the churches of the castles of Venngarn (1665) and Läckö (1668), owned by Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie, are one of the most central interior paintings preserved in the Nordic countries, and they emphasise personal righteous life. Nonetheless, it was the books by Arndt and the Poet s Society in Nurnberg that bound the Swedish gentry and the scholars of the Pietist movement together. The Finnish gentry had no castles or castle churches so they supported county churches, both in building and in maintenance. As the churches were not private, their iconography could not be private either. Instead, people used Pietist symbols such as Agnus Dei, Cor ardens, an open book, beams, king David, frankincense, wood themes and Virtues. In the Pietist images made for public spaces, the attention is focused on pedagogical, metaphorical, and meaningful presentation as well as concealed statements.

Many Faces of Mao Zedong

The main aim of this work was to explore the use of Mao Zedong s (毛泽东, 1893—1976) visual image in contemporary Chinese art during the years 1976—2006. Chairman Mao is the most visually reproduced person in the People's Republic of China (PRC), and the presence of his image is still unquestionable at many levels. Although several scholars have provided insightful observations on this topic, research focusing on Mao's visual image has been neglected. Employing the interdisciplinary approach of visual studies and using image as the main concept, this research combines different theoretical frameworks, deriving from art history, image studies and social sciences, for each chapter in order to explain the origins, intentions and major strategies of the contemporary Chinese artists. The focus of this research was to elucidate how Mao's visual image, deriving from the Maoist era, is re-created and negotiated in contemporary Chinese art works. The material reproductions - the visual images in contemporary art - are created to be juxtaposed with the immaterial mental images of Mao that were created during the Maoist era through the original visual images of Mao. This complex interaction between visual and mental images is further exemplified by art works that do not include Mao's visual image, but still imply his mental image. The methods used derive from both sinology and art history. The research is based on extensive fieldwork in China, which was crucial for gathering new information and materials from this vigorous art scene. The topic is approached through a Chinese cultural, political and historical perspective that is necessary for a further understanding of how the original visual images of Mao obtained their omnipotent status and what kind of iconography was created. Close structural analysis, taking into account the format, style, techniques, composition, colors, materials and space used in the art works, is employed to demonstrate the great variety of visual images created. The analysis is further placed in a continuous dialogue both with the contemporary art works of Mao and with the original visual images of Mao from the past. In this study it is shown that contemporary Chinese art relating to Chairman Mao is a more versatile and multilayered phenomenon than is generally assumed. Although some of the art works seem to fit into the definition of superficial art, the study demonstrates that this reading of the art works is not adequate. The author argues that employing Mao's visual images in contemporary Chinese art is based on three main strategies used by artists: to create a visual dialogue with a traumatizing past, to employ transcontextual parody, and to explore the importance of Tian'anmen through site-dependent art. These strategies are not exclusionary, but instead interdependent and many art works employ more than one of them. In addition, these three main strategies include versatile methods used by artists that make the use of Mao's visual images even more multifaceted.

Jac. Ahrenberg ja historian perintö : Restaurointisuunnitelmat Viipurin ja Turun linnoihin 1800-luvun lopussa

Jac. Ahrenberg and Patrimony Restoration Plans for Viipuri and Turku Castles at the End of the 19th Century This dissertation examines the unrealized restoration plans for two castles in the Grand Duchy of Finland one located at Viipuri (Vyborg, nowadays in Russia), the other at Turku (in Swedish, Åbo) during the last decades of the 19th century. Both castles were used as prisons, barracks and warehouses. From the middle of the 19th century on, their restoration and transformation into museums and "national monuments" were demanded in the newspapers. The prison reform in the 1860s stimulated the documentation and debate concerning their future, but it was only at the beginning of the 1880s when their restoration became an official state-run project. The undertaking was carried out by Johan Jacob (Jac.) Ahrenberg (1847 1914), architect of the National Board of Public Buildings. By combining written sources with drawings and photographs, this dissertation examines the restoration projects, the two castles' significance and the ways in which they were investigated by scholars. The plans are analyzed in connection with restoration practices in France and Sweden and in the context of contemporary discussions concerning national art and patrimony. The thesis argues that these former castles of the Swedish crown were used to manifest the western roots of Finnish law and order, the lineage of power and the capacity of the nation to defend itself. However, because of their symbolism, their restoration became a politically delicate question concerning the role of the Swedish heritage in Finland's nation-building process. According to Jac. Ahrenberg's plans, the two castles were to be restored to their assumed appearance at the time of the Vasa dynasty. Consequently, the structures would have resembled castles in Sweden. It is suggested that one aim of the restoration plans was to transform the two buildings into monuments testifying to the common history of Sweden and Finland. They were meant to consolidate the Swedish basis of Finnish culture and autonomy and thus to secure them against the threatening implications of Russian imperialism. It seems that along with the changing ideals of architectural restoration and the need for an original Finnish architectural heritage, the political connotations associated with the castles were one reason why Jac. Ahrenberg's restoration plans were never realized.

Valokuvallistettu luonto : I. K. Inhan tuotanto luonnon merkityksellistäjänä

Photographized nature I. K. Inha s work as a signification of nature The dissertation examines, through the work of the Finnish photographer and writer I. K. Inha (formerly Konrad Into Nyström) (1865 1930), the different ways in which the signification of nature is achieved. The principal material consists of Inha s work from 1890 to 1925, from which a number of photographs and texts are considered and upon which the photographization of nature is contemplated. The dissertation addresses the issue of how nature is conceived and how the act of photographizing it can be defined. The methodical context of the study is composed of three thematic baskets that structure the material and which consist of narrations on Finnish national perception, nature conservation and understanding the world. In the first case nature is seen as the natural environment encompassing lakes, seashores, forests, and hills, which at the time were often perceived from a utilitarian viewpoint. By the photographization they generated a pictorial narrative that could be shared. The natural environment was thus turned into landscape by means of photography, following the global pictorial concepts picturesque and sublime, as well as the national canons that had been developed in literature and the visual arts. In the narrations concerning nature conservation, the photographization did not merely occur within the limits of presuppositions, but rather nature was given the opportunity to unfold itself. While the photograph was being established as a basis for supporting nature conservation or to highlight the destruction of nature at the hand of Man, an attempt was made to represent subjects that were difficult to convey in photographs, such as nature s power or the miracle of growth. The thesis suggests, that in the third case the concept of nature broke away from its strict interconnection with the natural environment and led to a contemplation of nature that is perceivable in a person. In this context the photograph and the photographization are interpreted as an attempt to understand a person and his or her very existence in the world, while this same existential wonder is seen as being embodied in Inha s portrait of a rune singer and in his photographs of forest interior and water. Further, the thesis asks whether photographing nature could be interpreted as an action similar to the idea of the phenomenological reduction as a means of bypassing the photographer s prevailing way of being.

Nykyveistoksen, katsojan ja tilan vuorovaikutteisuudesta: Markus Copperin, Markus Kåhren ja Kimmo Schroderuksen teokset nykytaiteen välineproblematiikan valossa

Tutkielmassani tarkastelen nykykuvanveiston ominaislaatua ja suhdetta modernismin jälkeen syntyneisiin uusiin taiteen tekemisen muotoihin, kuten installaatioon ja performanssiin. Uudet taidemuodot mursivat modernistisen käsityksen välineestä, joka keskittyi taideteoksen fyysiseen olemukseen. Autonomisen veistosobjektin ihanteen sijaan uusissa taiteen tekemisen muodoissa teoksen suhde tilaan ja katsojaan muuttui merkitykselliseksi. Tutkielman tavoitteena on pohtia välineissä tapahtuvaa muutosta kuvanveiston näkökulmasta. Analysoin kolmen suomalaisen nykytaiteilijan, Markus Copperin, Markus Kåhren ja Kimmo Schroderuksen, teoksia ja avaan niiden kautta näkökulmia kuvanveistossa modernismin jälkeen tapahtuneisiin muutoksiin. Taiteilijoiden ammatti-identiteetti on kytköksissä kuvanveistoon. Tutkielman lähtökohtana on ajatus siitä, että kuvanveisto ei ole pysähtynyt modernistisen veistoksen tai monumentaalikuvanveiston perinteisiin. Veistoksen suhde tilaan ja katsojaan voi olla uusien ilmaisumuotojen tavoin merkityksellinen. Tutkielma selvittää nykyveistoksen olemisen tavan piirteitä. Keskeinen tutkimuskysymys on miten teoksen vuorovaikutteinen suhde tilaan ja katsojaan ilmenee ja mikä on sen merkitys teokselle. Tutkielman teoreettisena viitekehyksenä on Rosalind Kraussin käsitys välineestä postmodernissa viitekehyksessä. Aineiston analysointia tukevat myös Kraussin malli kuvanveiston laajentuneesta kentästä sekä installaatiota ja paikkasidonnaista taidetta käsittelevä tutkimuskirjallisuus. Tutkielmassa analysoitavaan aineistoon kuuluvat Copperin, Kåhren ja Schroderuksen teokset ovat pääosin 2000-luvulta. Tarkastelen niitä kolmesta näkökulmasta: ensin teoksen materiaalisuuden, toiseksi teoksen tilallisuuden ja kolmanneksi teoksen ja katsojan välisen suhteen kautta. Tutkielman aineistona on käytetty myös taiteilijoiden haastatteluja. Haastatteluaineisto perustelee teoksissa tehtyjä valintoja ja kertoo taiteilijoiden toiminnan motiiveista. Nykykuvanveisto näyttäytyy tutkielmassa monimuotoisena ja sisäisesti heterogeenisenä taiteen tekemisen käytäntönä. Tutkielman johtopäätöksissä totean, että taiteilijoiden teokset problematisoivat käsityksen veistoksesta tilassa sijaitsevana erillisenä objektina. Teokset määrittyvät eri tavoin suhteessa tilaan ja katsojaan: suhde voi olla riippuvuussuhde tai kieltävä. Katsojasta saattaa tulla etäisen tarkkailijan sijaan teokseen osallistuja. Teoksen, tilan ja katsojan välistä rajaa voi olla vaikea määritellä. Tällöin vuorovaikutteisuus katsojaan ja tilaan määrittää teoksen olemusta, jolloin tämän suhteen huomioiminen on edellytys teoksen olemuksen ymmärtämiselle.

Valta näkyväksi – Eduskuntatalohanke 1905–1926

Pro gradu -tutkielman tutkimusaiheena on eduskuntatalohanke vuosien 1905 –1926 välillä. Tutkielman tavoitteina on analysoida hankkeen aikana tapahtunutta arkkitehtuurin ja kaupunkitilan tuottamista, tarkastella hankkeen etenemistä erityisesti päätöksentekoprosessien kautta sekä analysoida monumentaalisuuteen liittyvän näkyväksi tekemisen strategian toteutumista. Hankkeeseen liittynyt keskustelu rakennuksen sijoittamisesta sitoo myös kysymyksen Helsingin kaupunkitilasta ja hallinnollisesta keskustasta osaksi tutkimusta. Aineistona ovat olleet tutkittavan aikavälin valtiopäiväasiakirjat, erilaisten päätösvaltaisten ryhmien mietinnöt ja pöytäkirjat, kilpailuohjelmat ja -ehdotusten kuvat sekä kilpailuiden palkintolautakuntien pöytäkirjat. Ajallisen rajauksen alku kytkeytyy vuoden 1906 valtiopäiväuudistukseen ja päätös Eduskuntatalon rakentamisen alkamiseen. Lähtökohtaisena hypoteesina on ollut, että tilan tuottaminen, samoin kuin arkkitehtoniseen tilaan liitettyjen merkitysten tuottamisen prosessi, alkaa jo ennen konkreettisen tilan olemassaoloa. Eduskuntatalohanke käynnistyi kun keskustelu yksikamarisen eduskunnan kokoontumistiloista tuli ajankohtaiseksi valtiopäiväuudistuksen myötä. Eduskuntatalohankkeessa rakennuttajana oli Suomen valtio, jota edusti eduskunta sekä sen valtuuttamat ryhmät: eduskuntatalovaltuuskunnat ja -lautakunnat sekä Eduskuntatalon rakennustoimikunta. Nämä ryhmät valmistelivat tilakysymystä ja siihen liittyneitä päätöksiä. Ryhmät muodostuivat kansanedustajista ja arkkitehdeista, vaihtelevassa suhteessa. Arkkitehtuuria ja kaupunkitilaa tuotettiin aina kun tilakysymyksen ratkaisua ja sijoituskysymystä valmisteltiin tai niistä keskusteltiin. Hankkeen aikana järjestettiin kolme kilpailua: vuoden 1908 valtiopäivätalon suunnittelukilpailu, vuoden 1923 eduskuntatalon sijoituskilpailu ja vuoden 1924 suunnittelukilpailu. Läpi hankkeen eduskunnan tilaongelman ratkaisuna pidettiin joko Säätytalon laajennusta tai uuden eduskuntatalon rakentamista. Kansanedustajien näkemykset tilaongelman ratkaisuun olivat puolueittain sitoutuneita. Arkkitehtuuriin ladattuihin odotuksiin ja rakennuksen sijoituskysymykseen vaikutti paljon rakennuksen rooli hallintorakennuksena. Hankkeen aikana vielä idean tasolla olleen rakennuksen ulkomuotoon ja sijaintiin ladattiin paljon symbolisia merkityksiä, odotuksia ja vaatimuksia, jotka tulivat esiin tilakysymyksen valmistelussa, pöytäkirjoihin merkityissä keskusteluissa sekä kilpailuohjelmissa ja kilpailuiden palkintolautakuntien arvioissa. Samalla tuotettiin konkreettista arkkitehtuuria, kaupunkitilaa ja rakennuksen symbolista roolia. Rakennukselta ja sen sijoituspaikalta odotettu ”monumentaalisuus” oli usein sidoksissa näkyväksi tekemiseen. Näkyväksi tekeminen tuli erityisen selvästi ilmi eduskuntatalon sijoituskysymyksessä.