Viewers of Noora Schroderus’s (born 1982) works can readily move from one emotional state to another. Her works abound with inventiveness, surprise the viewer with their diversity and offer silent moments of pause. Schroderus chooses her materials with care and is interested in their opportunities. Occasionally, the material finds its way to her, like dog hair, which unknown people began to offer to her after she had first used human hair in her works.

The works of this exhibition have in common serial thinking, a slow process of preparation and humour. The figure in the photographs of the self-portrait series is lightly twisted into impressive poses. The limbs have a slightly strange and unreal appearance. In reality, the poses are highly physical, causing bruises and other marks. One could imagine the model to be a doll instead of  a human being. The figure lying on floors and railings, however, is the artist herself. 

The plaster casts were the result of dialogues with painters Sami Lukkarinen and  Sirpa Särkijärvi. The idea was to use works by other artists as the material of one’s own works. The feeling of materiality changes the painting into something else. The most recent piece in the exhibition, White Canvas, contains a painting and three plaster casts of it. In artistic authorship, Schroderus is interested in the feeling of being an outsider. Collaboration alters one’s work; power shifts from one artist to another.

Embroidery on banknotes and fabric requires time and concentration. The material of embroidery in the Canis Lupus Familiarisseries is dog hair. The owners gave the artist not only dog hair but also the name of their dog, which creates a relationship between the material and the subject of the piece. In the same way as soft dog hair changes when treated, embroidery gives the portraits of banknotes a new look. Schroderus chooses the hues of the thread to suit the banknotes and the persons on the notes are ennobled, stitch by stitch, to acquire a royal appearance with their new coiffures.

For Schroderus, hair and money are of equal standing. She feels that material must have some kind of starting point, to be attached to and to be appreciated. At the same time, she considers whether she has the right to touch or interfere with the material that she chooses. The iconic form of Finnish Fiskars scissors is bent into a new shape in Still-Life. The hard element acquires softer forms and the threatening nature of the scissors starts to become amusing.

Living and working in Salo, South-West Finland, Noora Schroderus has held solo exhibitions in recent years at the Turku Art Museum (2017), Art Museum Gösta (2016) and Galleria Sculptor (2015) and has participated in group exhibitions at the Oulu Art Museum (2019), the Hyvinkää Art Museum (2017) and the Kerava Art Museum (2016). There are works by her in the collections of the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, the Wihuri Foundation and the Gösta Serlachius Art Foundation, and the Lars Swanljung Collection deposited with the Kuntsi Foundation. Schroderus graduated from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2014.

Ulla-Maija Pitkänen