“We usually know the history from the winning side – the side told in history books. All the other parallel stories have been hidden. Those are the stories I am very interested in telling.”
Anne-Karin Furunes, artist
A repeating theme in Anne-Karin Furunes’ art is that of the female character victim to historic events beyond her control. She uses different archives to search for pictures that move her. These small photographs, originally taken for bureaucratic purposes, are enlarged into paintings often over two metres in height.
The faces in Furunes’ portraits have usually been stripped of all the attributes that would reveal their historical time and social position. The faces are naked; we see serious and worried gazes, likely unaware of the atrocities that they are doomed to undergo. And yet, through Furunes’ skilful technique, the paintings manage to reveal something of their historical time and social position but also of their personalities.
Candidate Exhibition 2021
ARS FENNICA 2021-exhibition opens at Hämeenlinna Art Museum on 15th October 2021.
