ART CENTER AHJO, SYSI-HALL; SIRPA YLHÄINEN

SIRPA YLHÄINEN - SYNTYJÄ 22.10.-9.11.2025

Nature is made up of processes in which living organisms go from birth through growth and development towards gradual death and decomposition. Everything that is dead is material for new births. Humans belong to nature. Cells die so that new ones can be born. There is no life without death. Human psychic processes also seem to follow this endless dance of life and death. Sometimes processes of renunciation are emphasized, then new thought forms and new feelings arise. Life consists of systems rather than individuals. Systems are interconnected. We are not separate, but there are energetic fields between us through which information passes from one individual to another.

Outokumpu artist Sirpa Ylhäinen depicts in her paintings the endless dance of life and death, as well as the hidden, subconscious and hidden connections between life forms and individuals. In art, our ancestors can become visible. A person can be the descendant of an animal and our body can be part of the body of another species; an animal, a tree or a fruit. Everything belongs together. Everything is possible. Nothing is yet lost.

In the “Births” exhibition, Ylhäinen has paintings made with oil paint and mixed media.
In addition, there are small ink paintings/drawings. The exhibition consists of two exhibitions, as if in the middle of the large hall there is a small room made of walls.

“Art is a spiritual life. It is nourished by dreams and myths, the infinite treasure chest of the subconscious.
Painting is similar to life; forms are born and disappear on the canvas. Sometimes I want
them to develop into representation, sometimes I leave them as if in an intermediate space. Spatiality, movement and ripples,
the feeling of being alive. I look for these in painting. Freedom of expression and a certain carefreeness also fascinate
me. A form does not have to be perfect to be alive. A work is finished when it has
the feeling of an independent existence.”

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