"Forest" 2000
 
Riitta Päiväläinen Finland
Born 1969
University of Art and Design, Helsingfors; Masters of Arts Program, Departments of Photography, 1998-, Bachelor of Art, Departments of Photography, 1996-98, Departments of Art, 1993- Business Collage of Kuopio, Departments of Foreign Trade, 1991
 
   
Päiväläinen is fascinated by history, which one can not find in library books, in files or archives. Her photographs shows an interest in the "unwritten history" and focus on the absence and presence. The process of testing by doing - to slit, freeze, take to pieces, to tack, to baste and to burn are important procedures. The clothes and objects that the artist use are bought in second hand shops and flee markets, which means that one will never be totally aware of the true stories and personal histories belonging to the items. A cloth is not only a cloth when left behind, it also bears a left human presence. Clothes have their own silent history and work as metaphorical elements, as shelters and as protection. Clothes are intimate and human and bear their own history but tells a new one depending on how they are presented or in which context they get in.
 
 




"Overcoat" 1999