Outi Turpeinen 22.10.2004

Thoughts on beauty

MEANINFUL IS BEAUTIFUL

The concept of beauty has long traditions in aesthetics and art history. Beauty is also closely connected to ethics: what is seen as beautiful is considered to be right. Is beauty still an interesting point to consider? According to a Finnish art historian Marjatta Levanto, in contemporary art beauty is a secondary value compared to older arts (for example in the late 19^th century painting). Furthermore, in her opinion a society, where beauty does not matter as an important factor, is a risky society. [1] If so, then what is the role of beauty in contemporary arts and crafts, which exists somewhere besides or between old art, design and contemporary art?

My own point of view is one of a glass designer, an installation artist and a researcher. For me beauty is not the primary aspect in making the installations or writing the thesis. Rather, beauty follows naturally, if it fits in the concept of thought. In last years, I have been more concerned with for example forms, which I see as weird or unusual, than in the notion of beauty. It is more interesting to think of meanings in art than beauty as such. So, in that sense I am closer to contemporary art. Practice based work is based on material knowledge, but my conceptual thinking is more engaged with the questions of contemporary art and design. The techniques and materials are vital elements to consider for a designer or a crafts person, but they are not enough by themselves. To raise craft and design artifacts into meaningful objects and products, it is necessary to discuss also purpose and meaning.

Since 1997 the museum has been an important theme for my own work. I gather my inspiration and meanings from the questions around museum ethics and aesthetics. A particular theme or a story can represent meaning in art. Three installations are part of my PhD research. The first one, “Imprisoned Setting” at the Design Museum, Helsinki in 2000, dealt with the questions of the museum as a sacred place, where the museum objects were ennobled in their vitrines. The second installation, “Memories from a Curiosity Cabinet” at the Vantaa Art Museum, Vantaa in 2001, had a fictive collector, who created the narratives around the objects, which were placed into a site hut inside a white cube, in an art museum. The third test space “A British Noblewoman’s Collection from the 19^th Century India” in Kiasma, Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki in 2003, was an open subjective museum construction with the atmosphere of colonialism. I have built fictive museum installations, which represent the presentation and imitate the exhibition design of objects in cultural history museums. I have made my own museum objects of glass. In my installations, the fictive museum objects function as a centre of attention, as they do also in cultural history museums.

The aesthetic qualities of glass are fascinating, as glass as a material can be at the same time touchable and transparent. I have worked with various glass techniques, but I try to use the technique that fits the idea at hand the best. In my installations, glass objects metaphorically represent museum objects. Sometimes glass is beautiful, sometimes kitsch, other times something else. For example in the piece “The Evolution Rate of an Unknown Ritual Object I (Compared to Natural Creatures)” the glass dome brings meanings to laboratory or the serial nature of the domes Darwinist traditions. The aesthetics of glass is in itself in constant flow of change and process. There are many unique qualities attached to glass: it can reflect light or the relationship between opaque and transparent can be flexible in glass. Glass can be shaped into various forms from lace to sculptural, and as a result of that, aesthetic associations vary, but also meanings created change.

In my own work, I have been consciously seeking for qualities which are not so common in the Finnish glass scene. Traditionally, Finnish glass art is associated with blown glass design, which is mostly transparent, or possibly colorful stained glass. Often my pieces are not even recognized as being made of glass and this weirdness fits well in the overall concept of my installations. The first glimpse into an unrecognizable material creates a feeling of otherness, which is the impression I have sought after. The possibility of not recognizing the material takes the viewers associations into many directions, as the for example a fictive museum object, made out of glass, is often a new concept for the viewer. I am interested in open interpretation where clear answers or messages are not given, only hints to certain themes. Exploring and forcing the viewer to make interpretations is challenging. Sometimes unusual or new qualities in a material can be thought provoking and as such beautiful.

For me art, crafts, design and research are intertwined with each other. Beauty is not the aim for my art, even though beauty is connected to it. As a maker of artefacts, I can only seek the beauty in the whole making process of the installation. The others who see the objects in the installations can judge for themselves, if they see them as beautiful or not. This is not for me to evaluate. The question of how beauty exists today or how to please the public depends on the viewpoint of the spectator. “Life style”, which is connected to the ethics of life,[2] is a valuable way of thinking about beauty. What do you value? The concept of beauty varies in viewers minds, but also in different cultures and different times. My answer is: what is beautiful lies in art, which has meanings connected to it, in other words, conceptual thinking connected to practice based artistic work. It is beautiful to know your media you are working with, as then the working process feels natural, but as always, pushing your own limits makes the work worth doing it. When you look at something it can be beautiful aesthetically, but what truly moves your inside, changes the way you think, challenges your thoughts, well, that is fascinating and as such – beautiful. From ethical perspective subjective interpretation is honest and beautiful. It is right and true in it self. For me, meaningful is beautiful.

For some images, please look at: www2.uiah.fi/~oturpein