Contemporary art and design intertwine in Camouflage.

Design and art are two areas of visual culture which have many things in common. It is in fact often impossible to draw a clear line between the two.

The title of the exhibition also alludes to the fusion of the disciplines in the artworks themselves: disguise, blending into the surroundings, posing as something else than oneself. One  feature in the works on show is the way they employ traditional craft skills and materials in surprising contexts.

The exhibition features more than ten artists or artist duos from Finland and abroad. There are also some works from the collections of Kiasma.

Eyeballing! showcases 14 Finnish contemporary comic artists. In the exhibition, they interpret the world of comics using a range of media,often employing a spatial, three-dimensional approach. The starting point of the works in the show are the comics of the artists
themselves.

Although the artists are all different, in terms of content they share a tension between everyday reality and a certain surrealism. For example Aapo Rapi’s The idiosyncratic artist and wilderness hermit has appeared in Rapi’s comics for years. Now the man has moved to the future. The work brings us a greeting from an age when space travel is commonplace - but men have not become superheroes.

Comics artists are influenced by a broad range of visual culture: by underground culture, popular culture imagery and other comics, on the one hand, and by contemporary art, illustrations and even folk tradition, on the other.

Artists in the exhibition are Mari Ahokoivu, Terhi Ekebom, Matti Hagelberg, Jyrki Heikkinen, Kati Kovács, Hanneriina Moisseinen, Tommi Musturi, Ville Ranta, Aapo Rapi, Anna Sailamaa, Ville Tietäväinen, Katja Tukiainen, Marko Turunen and Amanda Vähämäki.

The exhibition was curated by journalists Ville Hänninen and Harri Römptti as well as Kiasma’s Chief curator/Collections Arja Miller.

Music is present in the featured artworks as a source of inspiration. It can take the form of a soundtrack which supports or challenges the visual aspects of the piece. The central theme in the exhibition is the intense emotional response produced in us by music. Many artists have used the aesthetics of music videos as the starting point for their work, approaching the topic using a variety of media, including video, painting, drawing, photography, sculpture and installation.

The title of the exhibition is taken from a song by the Swedish band ABBA.