A huge congratulations to our recent graduate Ville Kumpulainen on being awarded the Artproof Award 2019, announced at this years CHART Art Fair, Kunsthal Charlottenborg!
The jury, consisting of Rachael Chambers, Assistant Curator of Photography at V&A in London and photographers Asger Carlsen and Peter Funch, selected Ville Kumpulainen (represented by Persons Projects) as the recipient of the 2019 Artproof Award and said of Kumpulainen’s work:
‘The work struck us because of its poetic simplicity and it’s playful engagement with the viewer. In a time when opinions are constantly mediated through fastly advancing technology, the work’s immediateness and it’s simple display of found objects have an almost relieving effect on the viewer. The work doesn’t seem to be commenting on anything particular, meaning the viewer is able to engage on a personal, imaginative way. In that sense it has a timelessness to it.’
Project Statement: (Ville Kumpulainen – Eye and the Idea)
Twisted dimensions, illogicalities, holes, distortions, anti-gravitation and sensations of total emptiness occupy my photographic works. The process of making these images offers me an experimental approach to spaces and things; it enables a new discovery of dimensions and visual actualities otherwise hidden from the mun- dane view. I use materials such as found objects, archival images and analogue photo paper, which I dismantle and recompose by cutting, tearing, folding and rearranging.
What then unfolds within the photographic plane is an array of sculptural formations. They create depth and paths allowing experience and perception to get lost in the images. The borders of the photographs are closed. They force the photographic spaces to stay in their place and solidify, thus becoming generous abysses for the gaze to immerse with.
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Ville Kumpulainen graduated with a degree in photography from Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, in Helsinki in 2019.
View more of Ville’s work here.
Read more about the award here.