Jenni Rope: Bracken
Galerie Forsblom, September 15 – October 15, 2023
Jenni Rope employs a highly intuitive method devoid of advance planning. For Rope, this means letting chance take the reins – her process unfolds in a free, holistic stream of consciousness. Her technique is based on rhythmic movement and repetition, allowing her thoughts to flow freely, harnessing her intuitive knowledge. According to Rope, it is important to also listen to the material, allowing it to speak its own language and suggest new directions. Rope strives to notice surprising new paths proposed by her materials, keeping her process open to fresh, unexpected ideas.
Rope is interested in the spatial dimensions of painting, in the way shapes interact with space and with each other. Through unruly forms, her paintings infiltrate their surroundings, skirting the straight edges of the walls and surreptitiously crossing over into the domain of three-dimensionality, hovering somewhere between painting and sculpture. In her new exhibition, Rope enters fresh territory by juxtaposing rectangular canvases with organic cut-outs. The two offer a diametrically opposed viewing experience: we are so accustomed to seeing paintings in the form of rectangular canvases that a slanting oval seems challenging to conceive as a canvas. The rhythms of Rope’s paintings invoke strange natural phenomena, their forms and movements often being reminiscent of plants and other organisms. Her swirling patterns evoke unfurling fern shoots, immersive tangles of foliage, powerful water currents, or eruptions.
Jenni Rope (b. 1977) is a multidisciplinary artist who works across the media of painting, mobile sculpture, print design, artist’s books, and public art. She studied at Helsinki’s Free Art School, London’s College of Printing, the University of Art and Design Helsinki, and the Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki. She is represented in numerous private collections and in major public collections such as the Saastamoinen Foundation, HAM Helsinki Art Museum, Oulu Art Museum, and the State Art Deposit Collection. Her latest public mobile sculpture will be unveiled in October 2023 at the Radisson Red Hotel in Helsinki.