CANDIDAT 2007

Elina Brotherus

Elina Brotherus' early works (1997-99) are carefully constructed self-portraits that deal with difficult moments in a human relationship or with the ending of a relationship. In the pictures the model is naked or in tears; with the black remote-release cord reminding us that this sad or anxious figure is the artist herself.

The works are stills from the flow of life, universal in spite of their personal nature, since Brotherus believes in the basic similarity of people. “Cross-sections taken from my own life can be recognisable to others, too,” she says.

The much-exhibited series The New Painting (2000-04) prompted Brotherus to think about her relationship with painting, its history and the way it constructs meanings. The autobiographical quality gives way to a deliberate visuality, to an accentuation of light, colour and composition in painting, in works that are to varying degrees referential, in which the artist no longer represents herself. She is a “figure in space”.

In the series of photograph and video works, Model Studies (2004-), currently being worked on, Brotherus digs deeper down to the wellsprings of visual art and, for the first time, also works with professional models. Emerging into the centre of the picture is European visual art in all its breadth, starting from the academic traditions that also include croquis drawings done at art schools.

At the same time, the length of the 'decisive moment' so beloved of photography can be seen to grow from a fraction of a second to minutes, hours or – theoretically – even centuries.

Timo Valjakka