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Description

Four 150x30 (cm) acrylic paintings on canvas. They were painted mostly by group improv with only some larger directions decided in advance.

Originally I wanted to create a large aspect ratio painting to Ropecon, which is a major role playing convention in Finland. The theme of that year would have been "travel", so I thought it would have been epic to have a painting which makes viewers to travel with the painting, walk next to the painting because the details are small but the painting would be long. It could have been in front of Artemis space simulator and there might have been a flashlight to move behind the painting so that different parts would get illuminated... or maybe it would have been the story of the ring from Lord of the Rings? Anyway, that year there was no exhibition in Ropecon. So I decided to arrange the arts exhibition next time myself. Before that our idea sort of got out of hand and 1 piece of art became 4. At some point we started thinking should be build the canvas into a moebius strip which never ends, emphasizing this neverending storyline(!!!!!), but it would have been too tricky and we just wanted to do some improv paint.

(EDIT: I only recently found out about Isaac Asimov's short story "The Last Question". I was mind blown by it, not only because it was an awesome piece of art, but because the story and these paintings feel like referring to each other!)

I part, "Evolution" (bottom part)
We started to paint the bottom part first. A series of human footprints take the viewer from the ancient ocean and leads them through a jungle of ancient plants, insects and animals towards more developed biosphere. Yeah, not quite accurate depiction but hey, this is art! We used conifers as brushes to some parts and also glued sand and pieces of conifers on the surface. I wanted this to be installed horizontally and almost on the floor level so that the viewer could imagine walking next to the footprints. Out of some details, notice a large root which crosses the painting at the rightmost end. It leads us to the next painting.

II part, "Technologic evolution" (rightmost painting. I painted the lower section)
The root from the previous painting leads us to a path and a cut-down tree. An axe is still stuck to the stump of the tree. Human technologic development is starting to overtake the biologic aspect of evolution - humankind can choose who lives and who can bear children. On the left you might see a fenced-off area with domesticated animals. There are dim lights and a path created by humans. A house, crossroads and a path which disappears behind the hills. From there you can see distant lights of a motorway leading to a modern-day megapolis. Behind the urban scenery, there is a rocket climbing up to the sky. It is a contrasting motif to the life-bringing meteor in painting IV - a technological and controlled rocket taking developed life back to the skies. Above the clouds there are megastructures with unknown technology in them. Human hand prints can be seen in other one (in contrast to the foot prints in the first painting) and later in the star formations, when humankind is about to learn gigamanipulation. AND notice the classic, The Corner Sun! This time there is energy harvesting superstructure around it, a Dyson sphere.

III part, "The death of universe" (upper painting. I painted the megawurm section)
The scale of the paintings expands to the intergalactic spaces where ever older and older galaxies can be seen. Just before the galaxies are about to get destroyed due to entropy and expansion-ripping of the universe, an enormous wurm is swallowing a galaxy as a whole. The being looks half-biological, half-artifact. It is possibly done by humankind which is harvesting entire galaxies in search of vital energy to keep the humankind alive as long as possible, before the inevitable happens. A little later, to the left in the painting, galaxies are being ripped apart as the universe is losing its potential to hold matter as we know it. In the left-most part physical scratches can be seen in the canvas which is finally cut to pieces in the lower left corner. This leads us to the final but also to the pre-first painting.

IV / 0 part, "The birth of the universe and a prehistoric planet"
There is a big bang and a subsequent inflatory acceleration of the expansion. The intense energy field starts nucleating and creating areas of different densities, eventually leading to seeds for galaxies and other structures. The large scheme in the painting is smoothly intermixed with an intense starry sky, which is visible through a prehistoric and almost nonexistent atmosphere. A large meteor, a contrast to the rocket in the II painting, is possibly bringing necessary ingredients for the first biochemical actions to the primordial soup of an ocean. Toxic clouds between the mountains (initially a wave I painted, lol) glow in the light of the meteor as it is about to plunge in the ocean. Down in the water, beneath the waves and the sea spray, tiny monocellular beings are leading into more complex ones seen in the middle and the bottom of the ocean. From there, we can imagine the transition back to the painting I.

But. If we remember the impressive and laws-of-nature-defying gigawurm from the painting III, we might start thinking that humankind may have learned a way to seed themselves into the next universe. Maybe that explains why the footprints are appearing so much too early from their presumed historical time context.

We also considered to add a fifth painting in the middle. Then there would be a dozens of other cycles of universe back to back, creating a tunnel which continues to an infinite distance. The cycles resemble to this large one with some changes here and there. Maybe two, three of them create a spiral together? There would be a symbol floating in "mid-air", something along Ouroboros, Yin/Yang, a perfect circle or something similar, which would have reminded us of the neverending ebb and flow in the fabrics of time. Or maybe a diffusely glowing light ball, because light is so universal. In the end, and as a metajoke, DA waterstamp works well in the middle!

<3

The workgroup:
- Anni (the master with skillz; the paint, canvas and other stuff is also hers)
- me (the very initial concept, painter)
- Arvi (painter)
- Elmeri (painter)

Description

Four 150x30 (cm) acrylic paintings on canvas. They were painted mostly by group improv with only some larger directions decided in advance.

Originally I wanted to create a large aspect ratio painting to Ropecon, which is a major role playing convention in Finland. The theme of that year would have been "travel", so I thought it would have been epic to have a painting which makes viewers to travel with the painting, walk next to the painting because the details are small but the painting would be long. It could have been in front of Artemis space simulator and there might have been a flashlight to move behind the painting so that different parts would get illuminated... or maybe it would have been the story of the ring from Lord of the Rings? Anyway, that year there was no exhibition in Ropecon. So I decided to arrange the arts exhibition next time myself. Before that our idea sort of got out of hand and 1 piece of art became 4. At some point we started thinking should be build the canvas into a moebius strip which never ends, emphasizing this neverending storyline(!!!!!), but it would have been too tricky and we just wanted to do some improv paint.

(EDIT: I only recently found out about Isaac Asimov's short story "The Last Question". I was mind blown by it, not only because it was an awesome piece of art, but because the story and these paintings feel like referring to each other!)

I part, "Evolution" (bottom part)
We started to paint the bottom part first. A series of human footprints take the viewer from the ancient ocean and leads them through a jungle of ancient plants, insects and animals towards more developed biosphere. Yeah, not quite accurate depiction but hey, this is art! We used conifers as brushes to some parts and also glued sand and pieces of conifers on the surface. I wanted this to be installed horizontally and almost on the floor level so that the viewer could imagine walking next to the footprints. Out of some details, notice a large root which crosses the painting at the rightmost end. It leads us to the next painting.

II part, "Technologic evolution" (rightmost painting. I painted the lower section)
The root from the previous painting leads us to a path and a cut-down tree. An axe is still stuck to the stump of the tree. Human technologic development is starting to overtake the biologic aspect of evolution - humankind can choose who lives and who can bear children. On the left you might see a fenced-off area with domesticated animals. There are dim lights and a path created by humans. A house, crossroads and a path which disappears behind the hills. From there you can see distant lights of a motorway leading to a modern-day megapolis. Behind the urban scenery, there is a rocket climbing up to the sky. It is a contrasting motif to the life-bringing meteor in painting IV - a technological and controlled rocket taking developed life back to the skies. Above the clouds there are megastructures with unknown technology in them. Human hand prints can be seen in other one (in contrast to the foot prints in the first painting) and later in the star formations, when humankind is about to learn gigamanipulation. AND notice the classic, The Corner Sun! This time there is energy harvesting superstructure around it, a Dyson sphere.

III part, "The death of universe" (upper painting. I painted the megawurm section)
The scale of the paintings expands to the intergalactic spaces where ever older and older galaxies can be seen. Just before the galaxies are about to get destroyed due to entropy and expansion-ripping of the universe, an enormous wurm is swallowing a galaxy as a whole. The being looks half-biological, half-artifact. It is possibly done by humankind which is harvesting entire galaxies in search of vital energy to keep the humankind alive as long as possible, before the inevitable happens. A little later, to the left in the painting, galaxies are being ripped apart as the universe is losing its potential to hold matter as we know it. In the left-most part physical scratches can be seen in the canvas which is finally cut to pieces in the lower left corner. This leads us to the final but also to the pre-first painting.

IV / 0 part, "The birth of the universe and a prehistoric planet"
There is a big bang and a subsequent inflatory acceleration of the expansion. The intense energy field starts nucleating and creating areas of different densities, eventually leading to seeds for galaxies and other structures. The large scheme in the painting is smoothly intermixed with an intense starry sky, which is visible through a prehistoric and almost nonexistent atmosphere. A large meteor, a contrast to the rocket in the II painting, is possibly bringing necessary ingredients for the first biochemical actions to the primordial soup of an ocean. Toxic clouds between the mountains (initially a wave I painted, lol) glow in the light of the meteor as it is about to plunge in the ocean. Down in the water, beneath the waves and the sea spray, tiny monocellular beings are leading into more complex ones seen in the middle and the bottom of the ocean. From there, we can imagine the transition back to the painting I.

But. If we remember the impressive and laws-of-nature-defying gigawurm from the painting III, we might start thinking that humankind may have learned a way to seed themselves into the next universe. Maybe that explains why the footprints are appearing so much too early from their presumed historical time context.

We also considered to add a fifth painting in the middle. Then there would be a dozens of other cycles of universe back to back, creating a tunnel which continues to an infinite distance. The cycles resemble to this large one with some changes here and there. Maybe two, three of them create a spiral together? There would be a symbol floating in "mid-air", something along Ouroboros, Yin/Yang, a perfect circle or something similar, which would have reminded us of the neverending ebb and flow in the fabrics of time. Or maybe a diffusely glowing light ball, because light is so universal. In the end, and as a metajoke, DA waterstamp works well in the middle!

<3

The workgroup:
- Anni (the master with skillz; the paint, canvas and other stuff is also hers)
- me (the very initial concept, painter)
- Arvi (painter)
- Elmeri (painter)