Monday Entry: Salla Tykka

I am increasingly impressed with the artists who have emerged from Helsinki' Academy of Fine Arts. Each time I research the school I am met with the work of intriguing new artists such as Salla Tykka, who graduated from there in 2003. Tykka works in film, video, and still photography, and her film stills are taught and fascinating on their own. She is best known for a trilogy of short 35mm films, Lasso, Thriller, and Cave, which she created between 2000 and 2003, each dealing with the maturation of a young woman, and rites of passage. While the subject matter is familiar, Tykka's imagery is striking. In her 2006 work entitled Zoo, which was influenced by Alfred Hitchcock, a narrative of a young woman ambling around a zoo is intercut with footage of male athletes competing in a round of underwater rugby. The two disparate story lines come together in the end, finding the heroine submersing herself in a pool of water. Inquisitive heroines often find tragic ends in her work.

Looking at Tykka's film stills has made me interested in re-examining the short films I made last year, in hopes of isolating single frames for presentation. Distilling an entire narrative down into one image is what interests me most in photography, and I have never approached it from her angle before.



http://www.sallatykka.com/

http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/03/28/salla_tykka_trilogy.html

http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/03/28/salla_tykka_trilogy.html