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Emma Sarpaniemi
Two Ways To Carry A Cauliflower

Two Ways To Carry A Cauliflower - Emma Sarpaniemi Two Ways To Carry A Cauliflower - Emma Sarpaniemi Two Ways To Carry A Cauliflower - Emma Sarpaniemi Two Ways To Carry A Cauliflower - Emma Sarpaniemi Two Ways To Carry A Cauliflower - Emma Sarpaniemi

Exhibition Details

Two Ways to Carry a Cauliflower is a performative photography series exploring women’s self-portraiture through play. To free the subject and the gaze from certain patriarchal ideals of femininity, the subject depicted in the images is portrayed playfully and tenderly as a woman who behaves, looks, and performs on her terms and rules.

Often, playfulness can be perceived as naivety when associated with a female artist. Emma Sarpaniemi, however, uses it as a source of power. Through play, she envisions possibilities for new ways of existence and influence. In her universe, identity, reality, and imagination intertwine. Sarpaniemi is not creating an alter ego or distancing herself from the character. Instead, she creates an honest representation of her identity and reality where she feels she can recognize herself.

Sarpaniemi stages the scenes, selects the clothes, and designs the self-portraits herself. The starting point is often an object or a piece of clothing found at a flea market, from which the artist begins to construct a photograph. She is interested in the unpredictability that comes from everyday objects, used to create contradictions and alternative symbolic meanings.

The photographic series comprises a combination of home studio portraits as well as scenes captured in domestic settings and outside. Between public and private space, it presents moments of intimacy and play, where the viewer is brought closer to the subject’s world and imagination.

About the Author

Emma Sarpaniemi (Finland, 1993) is a photographic artist based in Helsinki. She has received a BA in photography from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague in 2019. In her work, she explores the definitions of femininity through performative self-portraits, a playground where she seeks to shake traditional conventions. Her work has been exhibited in venues such as Les Rencontres d'Arles, the European Month of Photography festival in Luxembourg, The Finnish Museum of Photography, Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art, Galerie Anita Beckers, and the Miettinen Collection. It is included in public and private collections in Finland, Germany, The Netherlands, and Switzerland.

Where

NEVVEN

Molinsgatan 11 – Göteborg, Sweden
30 January 2025

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