Drawing a Tiger | Lauri Anttila, Markku Kivinen, Tanja Koljonen, Jyrki Siukonen, Toni Vallasjoki, Marko Vuokola

Artist page

Marko Vuokola, Doppler Effect, 2021, detail, pigment print, framed, 100 x 100 cm

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On the left, there is a young boy sitting on a bench, drawing a tiger, while on the right a grown-up artist is doing the same. This small-scale photography work by Icelandic artist Hreinn Fridfinnsson inspired Marko Vuokola and Jyrki Siukonen to curate an exhibition entitled Drawing a Tiger.

Drawing A Tiger brings together artworks that examine what distinguishes two moments from each other. Recurring themes explored in the works include time, motion, observation, and recurrence – things that we use to distinguish this from that, but which also allow us to recognise them as essentially the same. The exhibition has a conceptual basis, but these concepts are simple and mundane. The artworks in the exhibition include both classics and works produced by young artists. The oldest works on display have been produced by Lauri Anttila and Markku Kivinen.

The temporal arc of the exhibition covers a period of over thirty years, extending from the late 1980s to the present day. Markku Kivinen’s sculpture Bathroom (1988) is a mundane déjà-vu and a twin study of the scale of the space, while Lauri Anttila’s photography work Peter Pan (1995) raises amusing questions about the nature of time and space. Is this the same Anttila? Can he truly step into the picture at the opposite sides of the ocean twice with the same work?

Toni Vallasjoki’s and Marko Vuokola’s artworks are based on photographs, and they bring themes pertaining to time and motion into focus. In Vallasjoki’s Attemt 27 (2020), the process of measuring time is transformed into the shape of an object. Vuokola’s Doppler Effect (2021), on the other hand, shows how the change in an approaching or a receding sound can be expressed in a pair of pictures.

Book pages and their similarities and differences form a recurring theme in Tanja Koljonen’s and Jyrki Siukonen’s works. Koljonen’s The Conquest of Happiness (2017) and Siukonen’s The Black Book (1992) offer their own interpretations of the empty page both in colour and in black and white.

The works produced by five of the artists are spread around the gallery space, while the gallery basement hosts Marko Vuokola’s RGB 16 777 216 (2021). The work is constructed from parallels of two colours, and it takes over five years and five months for the work to complete a single cycle.


We thank Tampere Art Museum for the loan of Markku Kivinen’s artwork.

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Drawing a Tiger
installation view

Photo: Jussi Tiainen

Tanja Koljonen
The Conquest of Happiness (ORANGE), 2017
serigraphy on pigment print, framed
20 x 25 cm

Toni Vallasjoki
Attempt 27, Variant 6/18, 7/18
2019–2020
archival pigment print
2x 70 x 50 cm

Marko Vuokola
Doppler Effect, 2021
diptych
pigment print, framed
2x 100 x 100 cm

Drawing a Tiger
installation view

Photo: Jussi Tiainen

Lauri Anttila
Peter Pan, 1995/2021
pigment print

Tanja Koljonen
Horses East, Horses West, 2016
lenticular photograph
34 x 26 cm

Jyrki Siukonen
Robert/Robert, 2021
exhibition catalogue packages, mirrors
50 x 60 x 58 cm

Drawing a Tiger
installation view

Photo: Jussi Tiainen

Marko Vuokola
RGB 16 777 216, 2021
digital animation
programming: Joonas Siren

Markku Kivinen
Kylpyhuone, 1988
steel, lead, plastic
43 x 71,5 x 89,5 & 40 x 52,5 x 56,5 cm

Tampere Art Museum Collection

Jyrki Siukonen
Mustan kirjan sivut, 1992
book pages
2x 37 x 27 cm