Eeva-Liisa Isomaa: Self-portrait as a waterfall

The waterfall sets off from a pure nature experience, but the mirror of the waterfall also reflects personal history; places by the water. Mornings along the Torne River, a distant village peeks out from behind the water surge and leads towards the paths of childhood. The landscape opens up widely around, with the spaciousness and light of the northern landscape. Often the starting point is far away from the place and moment of memory, but it grabs you to the familiar water's edge.

The waterfall carries with it the coordinates of distant places and the inevitable time. Always and again a new and varying path leads forward! But there are also delays; memories, old photos, people and meanings already lost, and a beautiful setting sun. Minute by minute, the years and decades come. But still there is the waterfall, in front, behind - a figure, a stone. The shape of the waterfall is drawn into the baroque frame. Then the waterfall already carried the image in the mirror of the water.

My exhibition is built from water-themed works. The waterfall drawn within the baroque frame tells of temporality and the momentariness of presence. For this whole, I have produced unique, printed works that contain memories from throughout my career. My intention is to build an installation of splashing waters of different sizes.

My works are based on my own history; I am building my history book from memory - in places I return to an old theme that is filtered and built into a new whole. Memory and memories build a non-linear time, which has always been one of my interests.

In these works, I have used intaglio techniques ranging from the 16th century soft-ground technique to newer ones like carborundum and photo-based polymer gravure.

The starting points for the works are photographed in Iceland and Brazil. The waterfall video work is the Iguazu Waterfall, which is one of the largest waterfalls in the world. The large mirror work's baroque frame reflects Rome, where I have spent residency periods.