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Milla Toivanen
Relationship to tradition?
When I started painting, I had the need to deny its role.
However, later on, it has become more and more important.
I refer to tradition as the long period of the last hundred
years, meaning that it is the time and art which I can
understand and which inspires me, although my closest
relationship is to painting which is made today.
I guess, because I studied two years in Belgium, I have
a strong affection for two painters, namely Luc Tyumans
and Marlene Duras. I wouldn’t say that I’m in the same
continuum with what they do, but more that my works are
in dialogue with them.
What interests me in their works is not so much the visual
aspects, more the attitudes that I recognise in them.
It gives me new hope for the possibilities of painting,
seeing works which are so close to me. It is an amazing
experience. In my opinion, they both try to move forward,
not taking the rules and status of painting for granted.
They are aware of the tradition of painting, but not stuck
to it. They question it and seek to take it somewhere
else. I see this in simple actions, how materials are
used, how paint is placed onto the canvas. To me, it seems
that they have an urge to paint, not in an easy, accustomed
style, but in a rather complicated manner. They prove
that there are alternative ways – to overtly entertaining
and simplistic one-off paintings.
The possibilities of painting?
Well, to be frank, I am not always so sure that painting
still has possibilities. I question it from time to time.
Of course, there will always be people who continue doing
it, but I am not convinced that there is wider interest
in it, because it is difficult and a boring medium for
the viewer. It is a little like cross-country skiing.
At the same time, it is precisely in these symptoms that
I see possibilities for painting. It functions like a
slowing-down mechanism, working as a brake on the overwhelming
means of the entertainment industry.
What do you read?
I read a lot, really a lot of everything – also books
which I do not fully comprehend. Books are part of well-being,
it is like a diet for the brain. I use them to keep myself
fit or just to relax. Currently I am reading four books
simultaneously: a collection of interviews with Fassbinder,
an anthropological study about Inuits, a mainstream psychology
book entitled It is Never Too Late To Get a Happy Childhood,
and an art book about Finnish women artists in the 19th
century. I don’t read that much art theory, I do not have
any connection to it. Sometimes I go through them, just
to throw myself off balance, even if they don’t say that
much to me.
The question of morality?
An artist has great responsibility for his or her actions
and choices. They are, in the end, moral decisions about
how the works evolve and come about. The essential thing
is not to go against your own beliefs. There is no model
to follow. Decisions are made along with the process,
based on sensitivity and intuition. One part of moral
is that I cannot focus on just art, I have to see life
as a much broader whole.
Relationship to the chosen subject?
Though no theme on its own is less worthy, all themes
must have personal meaning for me – and this in any sense
of the word. There is, for example, the reoccurring figure
of a rabbit. I am very aware that it is a fixation of
sorts, leading back to childhood, but there is no single
fashion in which I use the image. It depends on the occasion.
I have used the image as a pet, a test animal, and so
on. There is no single truth behind it which must be discovered.
Autobiographical elements in your works?
Everything I do is directly connected to my situations
in life. My works are strictly based on experiences or
emotions. I am very clear about not waving an opinion
about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On the contrary,
I am intimidated by that kind of pointing of the finger
at all the wrongs in the world. It is not so hard to figure
out positions by watching the evening news, but for me
the task of art is not to preach right and wrong.
I think the task of art is to shape and keep it as a free
area, in which we can confront and take up matters that
we find worthwhile. Matters which can be of a lesser importance.
There is no need to carry the weight of the world on one’s
shoulders. Life is rough enough anyhow.
Narrative elements in your work?
There are narrative elements in my works, even if I am
suspicious of how certain stories are made out of works
of art. I am especially tired of common type of art history
that explains what is happening in a picture. I don’t
think it is necessary to explain. The point is to pass
on something that begins to nag you and that does not
leave you in peace. Something which you cannot solve.
The works that I admire have narrative elements, but they
are fragmented stories, without a beginning or end. They
are partial stories without chronology or coherence –
somewhat unclear and weird narratives.
Mika Hannula
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Milla Toivanen
Good Girl
2002
oil on MDF
43 x 34
photo: Jussi Tiainen
Milla Toivanen
Snow & Ice
2002
oil on MDF
40 x 45
photo: Jussi Tiainen
Milla Toivanen
Hermaphrodites
2002
oil on MDF
45 x 38
photo: Jussi Tiainen
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