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Hanna-Kaisa Korolainen | Our Dearest Season

Year2023
MediumHand-tufted rug, mohair, silk, wool
Size150 x 155 cm
Categories
Hanna-Kaisa Korolainen | Reliefs | Textile | Unique

The title of the piece Dearest Season comes from the beloved Suvivirsi song, sung at Finnish school spring parties. Instead of merely summer, the work’s ‘dearest season’ takes thoughts to the garden during the different seasons – in the work, the flying white petals of the apple tree flowers are associated with the fleeting snowfall, which covers the earth at the dawn of winter and protects it for the next growing season. The flowers of the work bloom and the leaves turn green even in the middle of the darkest and coldest winter, giving the promise of spring that will always come again.

The plants selected for the piece bloom from early spring to late autumn. Hyssop, wild strawberry, redcap, peony, ball thistle, musk mallow, bitter gourd, eagle’s wing fern, dandelion, blue anemone, daisy and an apple tree that curves over everything have been chosen. The number of plants ’12’ reflects the cycle of the year and rebirth, the new growing season that always inevitably arrives. The main themes of the work are comfort and hope.

The color scheme is like a pink glowing spring night, at the same time overflowing with brightness and careful twilight. The brightly colored flowers stand out against the soft reddish background, and the background shows yellow-gold fades, like the touches of the sun’s rays.

Hanna-Kaisa Korolainen is a multidisciplinary artist and designer. She started out as a photographer, specializing in autoportraits and polaroids, later moving to France to work in the field of fashion and nourish her aesthetics through the decadence of the Parisian rock scene, countryside antique markets and Saint Laurent. A decade later, she returned to her homeland Finland, and after designing prints for Marimekko, she concentrated on art textiles – rya rugs and silk jacquards – glass and ceramics. Korolainen has been showing her artworks in exhibitions in Finland and abroad, from Beijing to Milan and New York.

“Mostly I’m inspired by different layers of history – visual arts, different styles and cultures – and on the other hand, the colour of my morning matcha or a blooming bush in the yard can totally take me over. I have studied inspiration at Aalto University, and only in recent years I have learned to block some of the things that inspire me out of my mind. This way I can focus on just a few topics in more depth – I might even work with some for several years.

I consider the role of inspiration in the creative process to be collaborative, and it may even be the case that sometimes the subject of inspiration is actually the starting point of the creative process. For example, Monet’s Water Lilies paintings have set in motion countless new works, the number of which is increasing indefinitely. I secretly dream that my works could also serve as a source of inspiration for someone.”

Hanna-Kaisa Korolainen

Other work by Hanna-Kaisa Korolainen