Iiris Riihimäki

Iiris Riihimaki’s large scale paintings act as connectors between multiple dualities. Embedding everyday objects collected from flea markets into her painting process, Iiris merges notions of rationality and emotion, human and non-human, the man-made and the natural into a single frame. There is something tender about her approach to constructing this ideal which is influenced by Karilean traditions passed down from her grandparents. Such traditions hold a significant place in Iiris’ process that embraces looking more outwards than inwards, living in togetherness close to natural surroundings and emphasising a connection to the divine through domestic spaces and the mundane.

 

In her painting "Mosquitoes in the bedroom", a patterned pillowcase becomes a bed spread and the hand- drawn curtains depict a macro version of the very same textile pattern, acknowledging the past with the present. In another painting, "How can you move like loose cotton and porcelain at the same time?", Iiris weaves the inanimate with the sentient across two intersecting planes, embodying the importance of emotional knowledge over more western forms of logic.