Vesa-Pekka Rannikko

At the Saari Residence, I aim to focus on animation as a slow and flexible form of narrative. Over the course of two months, I will try to draw and edit a piece that will focus on multisensory observation of the natural environment and its reproduction through analogue and digital drawing. My work is based on places where culture and nature come together or intermix. I intend to mainly find the objects of my drawings in the area surrounding the residence. I will draw, paint and write animation outdoors where I am close to the subject, weather and situation permitting.

In my work, I explore the possibilities of sketch-like drawings, roaming and randomness in visual narratives. I plan to give shape to a type of piece that doesn’t settle in place but operates as a living situation instead of a static object. I hope that it will become a life-like tapestry in which movement, the body, the images and the words blend into one.

The residency gives me the opportunity to stop and reassess the direction of my work and what I find meaningful about it. I particularly want to develop the idea of a piece as an ecosystem at Saari and to reflect on artistic work as a collection of intersecting organic processes. I hope there will be discussions between the artists about the situations, sensations and thoughts we encounter during our residency.

Vesa-Pekka Rannikko (b. 1968, Turku) is a multidisciplinary visual artist living and working in Helsinki. His works are characterised by an open structure that combines various visual and narrative means, offering several ways of interpreting, reading and experiencing the piece in question. His artistic work is extremely multidisciplinary and in recent years he has focused on animation, site-specific pieces and work combining the qualities of sculpture and painting. He is particularly interested in the space between definitions, where instead of polarisation, a mixing, merging and multifariousness are possible.

Vesa-Pekka Rannikko has studied at Uniarts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts (BA 1996) and the University of Art and Design Helsinki (MA 1994). He has participated in numerous group exhibitions internationally and held solo exhibitions in galleries and museums across the Nordic countries and the United States. He has carried out several art projects in public spaces and is active in artist organisations and communities.