Old Paper, New Life
New Life from Old Paper
Eva Lähteenmäki
9.10.–12.11.25
Mon-Fri 8-18 and Sat-Sun 8-15
on Display at Linnasmäki Gallery
I craft. I do handicrafts. I am a crafter. My most important tools are scissors and glue. Cutting and gluing in this age of artificial intelligence and digital world might sound a bit silly, but for me, they bring joy and peace. I hope that my works bring out a smile. Everyone is free to create their own story while viewing the works. We are all creative.
By profession, I am a Finnish language teacher. In teaching, one’s own handiwork is not always so concretely visible – the impact is seen only in the long term, as students’ language skills improve gradually. That’s precisely why crafting feels so satisfying: at the end of the process, there is something visible and concrete in hand, a finished work.
In the choice of materials, along with playfulness, there is recycling. Tea bags don’t fly into the trash after use – they are dried, emptied, and given a new life. Also, café napkins, all kinds of tickets and notes, trash in others’ eyes, find their place in collages and books. I like to use images and pages from old books and magazines – their paper quality is different, softer, and the colors are warmer than in newer editions. The different structures of various papers bring layering and interest to the works.
Details are interesting, and some small detail somewhere is often the one around which an entire story is built in the collage. The end result is always a surprise. During the work, it feels like searching for a treasure, and at the end, the treasure is found. The most difficult moment in the process is stopping: when is the work finished?
Sometimes collages expand into books. “Junk Journal” literally means “trash diary”. It is a self-bound book or notebook whose pages are created from recycled materials such as pages from old books, envelopes, vintage documents, and other paper “trash”. They form a personal and ecological calendar, diary, or similar using various crafting techniques and recycled materials.
I hope you find your own story in the works and get inspired to craft.
You can make art by crafting. You cannot fail and you cannot be wrong. Just enjoy.
Craft!
Eva Lähteenmäki
Instagram: @evalaht
email: evalahteen@gmail.com
Gallery Linnasmäki organizes diverse changing art exhibitions throughout the year,
which always offer visitors a new kind of cultural experience.
For more information about exhibition opportunities, please contact:
Anna Kaisa Siltanen, annakaisa.siltanen@linnas.fi or tel. 040 624 0814
