HAA GALLERY | Alexander Salvesen: Current States III 27 October – 20 November, 2022

HAA Gallery presents the exhibition Current States III by Alexander Salvesen 27 October – 20 November, 2022.

Welcome to the Exhibition opening on Wednesday, 26 October 5–7 pm! 

Image | Alexander Salvesen: Just A Thermodynamic Machine, 2022

Alexander Salvesen: Current States III   

Current States III by Alexander Salvesen exhibited at HAA Gallery in Suomenlinna, Helsinki, is an exhibition combining light, sculpture, video, photography and sound. It is the last part of a three-part exhibition series built around the different states of water and observations of a fossil capitalist society after the corona pandemic, where time is money and nature is above all a resource that enables economic growth. The climate disaster, the collapse of biodiversity, war, energy crises and water are now shaping our perception of a good life.  

The Current States exhibition series grows out of the changing and fluid nature of our time, where the present seems increasingly difficult to reach for many. The name of the exhibition refers in particular to water and its various states: liquid, ice and gas. It refers to flows of currencies and some seemingly immovable and static attitudes or things, in the midst of many overlapping catastrophes that try to drag us below the surface. The name is also a reference to place and a state of mind.  

The exhibition exhibits, for the first time in its entirety, the three-part overhead projector -based workseries Centre of Our Universe (2019), Osmosis I–III (2020) and a new work Just A Thermodynamic Machine (2022), which are inspired by the world and the three states of water. The exhibition also exhibits a self-portrait titled A Day In A Life, which consists of a collage of over 500 photographs taken during the covid quarantine and works from the previous exhibitions. 

Alexander Salvesen (b. 1990) is a Finnish artist and curator who primarily works with light in different forms. In his works he often focuses on colour, space and shape and especially their relations to each other and to the viewer. He is interested in the manipulation of our perception and likes to, through his works, tickle the viewer's mind to reflect on their own senses and suggest a moment of serenity by just being present in the moment. Salvesen's work often springs from perceptions of our surrounding nature and from its phenomena, but also from present political and socio economic situations. Currently he is interested in the complexity of our perception, the puzzling concept of time and our obsession with speed and travel. A deep awareness and worry of the ongoing climate crisis and ecological collapse can be found throughout his works. Some of his previous works have been exhibited in galleries and light art festivals in Finland and abroad.