“In Between the Ends of a Rainbow” (Finland)

Latvian Museum of Photography is pleased to present In Between the Ends of a Rainbow, a group exhibition by Finnish photographers Johannes Romppanen, Aki and Astrid Sinikoski, Juuso Westerlund.

 There are sudden moments of spell we treasure in our memories – moments of dust playing in the sunlight, safe hand fondling our hair while we fake we´re still asleep, indescribable certainty of the whole world being at it´s right place for a short moment, carefree -yet secure, sense of loving and being loved back. These lived memories cannot be recalled by force, but once becoming a parent we receive a momentary access back to the chest aching bliss of childhood. Facing our own vulnerability, knowing we cannot protect nor prevent our children from sorrow and worries, we keep loving them with bursting hearts, unconditionally.

In Between the Ends of a Rainbow presents Johannes Romppanen´s warrior princess Lilja, a princess who does not speak, a princess who does not walk, a princess who will be needing assistance for the rest of her life. But foremost the princess is Lilja, a girl and a daughter who will be turning eight soon, a girl who can make choices with her sight and experience her surroundings strongly through her hearing, a sister who can play with her brothers, a daughter who is cherished for what she is and can do, instead of for what she isn´t and can´t do.

Aki and Astrid Sinikoski’s photo series New Ghosts portrays the relationship between father and daughter and their attempts to understand life, change, and the passage of time. Photos raise questions about identity, adulthood, childhood, life, and death— what kind of role models, ideals, and future scenarios do we create for each other? Father and daughter have planned and made their ghosts study together as an artist duo since 2011.  It will be published as a whole in 2058 when Aki turns 80 and Astrid 50.

Juuso Westerlund photographs his two sons growing, as if the images in Heartbeats, where poems he didn´t know how to write. Poems of boyhood, longing, innocence, vulnerability and mortality. The work seeks to address questions that are fundamental to human experience, the answers to which we might have lost touch with as we´ve become older –What does childhood mean and how does it feel?

The exhibition is realized with the support of Frame Contemporary Art Finland.

Сurator: Tuula Alajoki