Exercises in Handling Darkness
sandpaper on scratchboard
each 58 x 69 cm or 19,5 x 69 cm
In many of her works, Jenni Eskola (born 1982) fills the surface of paper with repeated patterns, or colours it completely. Sometimes she has covered the walls of an exhibition space with her precise drawings. The filling of a void starts with the surface of paper and expands to cover a whole wall.
Eskola’s work at PROJECT is based on removing things, instead of filling empty space. The properties of paper, its sensitivity, are still important. This work employs scratchboard and yellow sandpaper. Scratchboard has a black surface covering a white inside layer. The rough black surface is suited to grinding and wear. The friction of these two opposite materials leads to drawings of light and darkness. The nature of the materials changes when they come together. Scratchboard reveals light, while the black of the scratchboard darkens the surface of sandpaper when it becomes attached to it. Exercises in Handling Darkness also reveals the shades that remain light and darkness. The scratched material, the assembled paper dust, bears witness to the grey between the two extremes.
Jenni Eskola graduated from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2012. Her work has been displayed in the Helsinki Art Museum’s collection exhibition (2011 –2012), at Galerie Anhava (2011) and Galleria Aarni (2012). Works by Jenni Eskola are included in the following collections: the Helsinki Art Museum, the Finnish State art Collection, the Saastamoinen Foundation and Pro Artibus.
The PROJECT series is curated by Piia Oksanen.
