SUSANNAN PUUTARHA
Oil paintings on canvas.
Tm galleria, Helsinki, Finland 2023
photos: Emma Keiu, Katariina Lager and Taru Kallio
Susannan puutarha (Garden of Susanna)
- Press text
The starting point of the work is the story of Susanna, a young woman who became a target of harassment while bathing in her private garden. The paintings contain references to several different versions of this story, which has been depicted throughout art history. The story serves as a mirror for emotions such as power, anger, fear, euphoria, and vulnerability.
In my paintings, Susanna is an exhibitionist who wants to be seen but ends up hiding her body behind bushes, trees, or a damp towel. The figures in my works oscillate constantly between empowerment and loss of control. They have abandoned the attempt to “fix” themselves and surrendered, with all their contradictions, to a state of confusion. One of my colleagues once described them as restless, unbalanced creatures in constant motion.
The bodies have taken on impossible proportions—human and animal forms have merged into something monstrous and comical. In these paintings, I wanted to turn Susanna inside out, to paint what is written between the lines. I often paint faces as masks, yet they do not conceal the inner conflicts: desires, fears, and obsessions seep to the surface.
I play with exaggerated ideas of femininity—with seemingly straightforward references to the personal, the private, and the bodily, which appear to close so tightly around me that I can no longer separate myself from my work. I have been working on these paintings for the past three years. Over this long process, the works have created their own enclosed reality outside of myself; they have materialized through my feelings, body, and experiences, forming their own ecosystem. Over time, they have become strangers. I like to think that the garden has closed in—the branches have grown, obscuring the view—and now I can only peek at them through a hole in the hedge.
Taru Kallio