INTERVIEW WITH MIKAEL SIIRILA
A brief bio on you, where you currently live and work.
I am a darkroom artist and entrepreneur living in Helsinki, Finland. During the last ten years, I have gradually cultivated my relationship with photography towards a more consistent form of expression. As a result, photography and printmaking have become a means for contemplating and dwelling on my human experience.
I work exclusively with black & white film and the silver gelatin process. I like to approach the photograph as a handmade physical object. Growing up in the 90s, I have associated the postcard-sized '1-hour-photo' as the original form. The smaller size makes a picture feel more personal and intimate, a piece of poetry.
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Tell us about your greatest inspirations or influences?
I have loved Giacometti, Hammershøi, Morandi, Hopper and Gormley for the longest time. I may have absorbed some André Kertész, Luigi Ghirri, Saul Leiter, Masao Yamamoto, Ralph Gibson and Renato D'Agostin into my visual language, to name a few.
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Tell us a bit about your creative process?
Saul Leiter's expression "in no great hurry" describes the spirit of my process quite accurately. I focus on making just 10-12 pictures per year.
The darkroom is at the heart of it all; I have no studio, process or practice outside the darkroom. My pictures are observations of my life and travels shot with minimal interaction with the subjects. This prerequisite is vital to me; I want my gaze to be an outside observer. The origin of my pictures is the act of looking, not creative imagination.
My negatives are a kind of raw material. I develop my films typically several months after shooting. I interpret and recontextualise the pictures with fresh eyes into continuous and personally meaningful themes. The place, time and events surrounding specific shots are almost arbitrary.
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How has the pandemic affected your creativity, and how do you see the world-changing?
I'm more introverted than a social animal. So while the pandemic has caused some stress, it has also presented more opportunities to stop and reflect. Now, approaching 2022, I feel a lot may have changed inside, but what exactly? Perhaps an uncertainty about how one should live life has crept in. Nevertheless, the optimist in me thinks we are on the brink of a new renaissance.
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Who do you consider to be an icon of our time?
Icons come and go. I am quickly and equally captivated by scientific discoveries, art experiences and human achievements, often buzzing about something. Just the other day, it was the elevator scene in Carlo Sironi's film Sole or recently the narrative genius of L'Avventura. Perhaps a glass of wine I had. Or just as well something Elon Musk. My family and a few close friends will get to hear me explicate.
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Do you think the art world needs to change? How do you feel it can improve?
There is a self-important and exclusivist side of the art world. Here in Finland, the scene feels guarded by the few institutions, art schools, and gatekeepers. I have embraced social media as a serious platform for presenting work. It's an ongoing exhibition with an audience more extensive than any local white box can offer. Instagram connects artists directly with people who find meaning in their work; sans gates, shrouds of mystery or pretentious jargon. Buying a piece directly from an artist creates a unique personal connection.
What does well-being mean to you, and what do you practice?
My darkroom is a private basement just a walking distance from home. Imagine a white-walled windowless space surrounded by bedrock and lit by the red safelights. Moments of absolute silence are broken only by the faint clamour of life and plumbing of the building above. It's a womb, an inner space and a sanctuary.
Printing sessions in the darkroom feel like visits to a retreat. I feel disconnected from the world. Yet, inside I can entirely focus on the physical work of printmaking and the intellectual contemplation of my pictures. Walking out after a 10-hour session, I feel exhausted but rejuvenated.
For me, well-being is perhaps about finding meaning in the little things, savouring life in detail. In every grain.
Links:
https://mikaelsiirila.fi
instagram.com/mikaelsiirilaPortrait of the artist by Niilas Nordenswan
