Jaakko Niemelä

I’m a 50-year-old artist from Helsinki. I create installations using lighting, videos and constructions. At the moment I’m planning three broad exhibitions for 2010, in Århus Artbuilding in Denmark, Jyväskylä Art Museum, and possibly Taidehalliin Helsinki. The latter two exhibitions will partly be joint projects with my wife Helena Hietanen.

All three exhibitions are large-scale, and as always with my work they are planned with the specific location in mind. I have already done quite a lot of work towards them. First in line is the Arhus exhibition, which opens on 2 February 2010. During my stay at the Saari Residence I will put the finishing touches to the pieces for exhibition. At the Residence I will construct a space in the studio for testing and developing the computer animations for the exhibition, which will be projected through the ceiling of the gallery in Arhus.

The central elements of my most recent works include walls, barriers and ceiling constructions, all of which are erected at the exhibition site. I addition to large constructions, my works also employ video projection, lights, sound, fog machines, computer animations and computer-controlled toys and motors.

My works are displayed only once, in the venue they were specifically designed for, after which they’re destroyed. The large size and structural characteristics of the pieces make them very labour-intensive to produce, and they require a great deal of raw materials and specialized equipment’.

The spatial and acoustic characteristics of the pieces comes across best through film. There are videos and photos of many of my works on my website, at WWW.JAAKKONIEMELA.COM.

As planned I worked on my exhibition for Århus Artbuilding, held in February 2010. I experimented with video animations in my workroom and prepared miniature models for a forthcoming exhibition. During my the Saari Residence stay I also worked out the general layout of the exhibition, what installations would be going in which space and so on. At Århus three largish rooms are used for the exhibition.

In addition to the above work, I also experimented with illuminating the barn at the Saari Residence from within. I wanted to see how light would come through the roofing structure and affect the surrounding nature. This was an educational experience, and provided inspiration for my net light installation. Myself and photographer Petri Anttonen will document my light experiments, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the pictures will turn out.