Memento – Ulla Pohjola and Kaija Poijula 7.1.–15.4.2018

The year 2018 in the Craft Museum of Finland begins with the Memento exhibition, which consists of solo exhibitions by visual artists Ulla Pohjola and Kaija Poijula. They both are storytellers and with the works they illustrate their inner worlds. Pohjola and Poijula are masters of handling and merging different natural materials. There are mirrors, stones, a burnt loom, skulls, bream scales and fluffs of dandelions in their works. The artists use such techniques as embroidery, painting and collages of objects.

Ulla Pohjola

In her art Visual Artist Ulla Pohjola deals with the mystery of being a human and the inexplicable presence of the unseen. Her works are memories of places, events, thoughts and feelings. They let the audience experience all that people carry with them consciously and unconsciously.

Pohjola creates entireties in her works and uses different textile techniques and painting techniques as well as utilizes objects that she has found in the nature or from the flea markets. Direct contact with materials, presence and letting herself quiet down are important for her. Pohjola’s personal way of working turns her private feelings and imagery into a shared experience.

Ulla Pohjola lives and works in Tampere. She graduated as Master of Arts from the School of Arts, Design and Architecture in 1995 and in 1996 she was selected as the Young Textile Artist of the Year. In 2006 she received the Art Prize of the Pirkanmaa Arts Council and in 2016 Pohjola was given the Jury Prize recognition in the international exhibition of miniature textiles in Bratislava.

Pohjola has held over fifty solo exhibitions in Finland. In addition, she has taken part in dozens of group exhibitions and solo exhibitions both in Finland and abroad. There are her works in the collections of, for example, the Saastamoinen Foundation, the Wihuri Foundation, Oulu Art Museum, the City of Salo, and the Finnish State Art Collection. She is a member of the Finnish Painters’ Union and the Union of Industrial Design Ornamo.

www.ullapohjola.fi

Kaija Poijula 

In her works, Visual Artist Kaija Poijula strives to depict the sense of being an outsider, loneliness and the invisible world of shadows, without becoming too melancholic. Poijula quotes the poet Pentti Saarikoski (1937 – 1983): “I am not interested in the world and its places. I am interested in places and their worlds.”

In her works Poijula uses such materials as animal skulls, plants as well as worn, rusty, abandoned and partly burnt objects. The memories entangled with the objects blend together with the fragile and heavy materials and become works, which create dreamlike, an almost scary-tale atmosphere.

Kaija Poijula lives and works in Helsinki. Poijula graduated as Master of Arts from the School of Arts, Design and Architecture in 1995. She studied as a scholarship holder in the Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm and in the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. From 2003 to 2007 she lived and worked in Ireland.

Poijula has had several solo exhibitions and she has taken part in numerous group exhibitions in Finland and abroad. She has designed ecclesiastical textiles as well as works for private and public spaces in Finland and abroad. In 2006 she finished a commissioned artwork for the Bethlehem Cultural Centre in Palestine. Her works have been on display nationally, for instance, in the Mänttä Art Festival (2014) and the Purnu Art Festival (2015). Poijula’s works are part of the Finnish State Art Collection. She is a member of the Association of Finnish Sculptors.

www.kaijapoijula.com