Tiina Heiska


EscapeIntoLife_Tiina-Heiska-1From the Series Twin Room, 2009, oil on canvas, 110 x 190 cm

EscapeIntoLife-Tiina-Heiska-2From the Series Spell, 2010, oil on canvas, 130 x 220 cm

EscapeIntoLife_Tiina- Heiska-3From the Series Mermaid  Legs, 2010, oil on canvas, 90 x 170 cm

EscapeIntoLife_Tiina-Heiska-4From the Series The Eclipse, 2006, oil on canvas, 146 x 280 cm

EscapeIntoLife_Tiina-Heiska-5From the Series Growing Small,  2008, oil on canvas, 50 x 76 cm

EscapeIntoLife-Tiina-Heiska-6From the Series Twin Room, 2009, oil on canvas,  100 x 160 cm

EscapeIntoLife-Tiina-Heiska-7From the Series Spell, 2010, oil on canvas, 130 x 190 cm

EscapeIntoLife_Tiina-Heiska-8From the Series Spell, 2010, oil on canvas, 130 x 170 cm

EscapeIntoLife-Tiina-Heiska-9From the Series Butterflly Caught, 2008, oil on canvas, 100 x 190 cm

EscapeIntoLife-Tiina- Heiska-10From The Series Twin Room, 2009, oil on canvas, 100 x 200 cm

Artist Statement

For some years now, I have been creating series of paintings in which my themes evolve from one painting to the next. My work is based on photography, which I use as a sketch or a draft for the later painted image, and it’s intricately linked to cinematography. However where traditional cinema relies on a continuous flow of events and thereby creates a story with a beginning and an end, my work is comprised of several series of stills. My paintings form no obvious storyline but rather leave it to the viewer’s imagination to bridge the gap between image and story.

A female character, whose age is rarely discernible, frequently inhabits my paintings. This constructed image is usually based on photographs of me taken by myself. Yet it’s obviously not a self-portrait, but something different – an alter ego, a memory, or a fantasy.

The characters in my work, my dramatis personae, have a double existence, for although they seem to be caught in a snapshot, trapped in the briefest moment in time; they are also rendered eternal through the slow and lasting medium of painting. My work thus expresses a longing for the moment, the instance, where everything can still happen, where possibilities are plenty, and where something bad happening can still be avoided.

About the Artist

Tiina Heiska was born in Finland, 1959.

Her work is based on photography, which she uses as a sketch or a draft for the later painted image. Tiina Heiska´s works carry a sated and poetic mystique owing to the painterly quality but also to the fact that their inherent narrative is never obvious.

Her work is intricately linked to cinematography, but where traditional cinema relies on a continuous flow of events and thereby creates a story with a beginning and an end-ing, Heiska´s work is comprised of several series of stills which form no obvious storyline but rather leaves it to the viewer’s.

Tiina Heiska’s Website

Tiina Heiska at Ama Gallery

posted by Carmelita Caruana




One response to “Tiina Heiska”

  1. […] Tiina Heiska – From the Series Spell, 2010, oil on canvas, 130 x 190 cm   Tiina Heiska – From the Series Mermaid Legs, 2010, oil on canvas, 90 x 170 cm   Quelle: Tiina Heiska | Escape Into Life […]

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