KÜNSTLERHAUS

BETHANIEN

Künstler*innen

Tanja Koljonen

Finland

From the series: Anywhere Recollections I-IV/ Anywhere Recollections III, 2012, pigment print, 31 x 34 cm

I work with found objects and fragments of text. Found objects often draw my attention when they contain traces of human use. I interpret an idea and isolate objects from their original function. I may leave the object as I found it or cut it, cover it up and rearrange it. As photographs my works exist in the present tense rather  than being memorial objects, evidence or a surface to sink in. Photographing the object shifts the emphasis onto the idea behind it. This could be likened to what painting does to Magritte’s pipe, namely the object becomes merely an indication of itself. Photography transmutes the object itself into a metaphor. These metaphors are archived thoughts in an endless and curious process of expanding understanding our understanding of human nature – surfacing results of text and objects delicately sealed by the act of photographing.