What. Research residency
When. September-October 2024
Where.  Haparanda
Organizers. HaparandAir, Resurscentrum för konst
Who. Kristiina Mäenpää  (b. 1990, Tampere)
Website. kristiinamaenpaa.com

Kristiina Mäenpää works with installation, sculpture and photographic techniques. Her works usually have an emphasis on site-specificity with a firm dialogue with exhibition space. With a background in photography, Mäenpää sees the structures of three-dimensional space as well as the materialities of her artworks through the notion of photographic, seen as traces of time and duration in materials. She approaches the appearance of temporality in matter as erosion, that is present in bedrock, light sensitive photographic film, or rust pushing through concrete.

As Artist in Residence, Mäenpää will work with a body of work called Slow waves, exploring the changes in geological environment and traces of ice age in bedrocks around Norrbotten area. She will work by means of analogue photographic paper and concrete castings out of the rock surface. The title of the series refers to the long temporal continuum and the slow material changes, which are expressed not only as grooves in time-worn rocks, but also as areas bordered by sea water on light-sensitive paper.

Kristiina Mäenpää is a Helsinki based visual artist. She received her MFA in Academy of Fine Arts, Uniarts Helsinki in 2023, and MA in Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture in 2024. Her most recent works have been exhibited at HAM gallery (Helsinki, 2024) and at galerie Anhava (Helsinki, 2023).