Reija Hirvikoski and Marjukka Vainio appointed artist professors
28.08.2009  Photo: Lehtikuva
The Arts Council of Finland has appointed the stage and costume designer Reija Hirvikoski and the photographer Marjukka Vainio for the two posts of artist professor which became vacant in the beginning of September. Their five-year terms began 1 September 2009.
The requirements for artist professorship dictate that on the basis of his/her previous activities the appointee can be regarded as a particularly skilled artist in his/her field. The Arts Council of Finland makes the decision on the appointment from the individuals nominated by the national arts councils.
There are in all eleven artist professors posts, of which the professorships held by the director Kaisa Korhonen and the photographic artist Ulla Jokisalo became vacant.
Grounds for the appointments included the following:
Reija Hirvikoski, Doctor of Arts, has designed a diverse range of stage sets and costumes to classics, musicals, dance performances and children’s theatre. During her long career, she has worked in cinema, theatre and television. She was the first Finnish female stage designer to receive the Jussi award for her work on the film The Snow Queen (1987).
Hirvikoski’s strengths include a comprehensive and content-based interpretation of the overall visualisation of the play. In her stage sets, she succeeds in turning the line spacing in the text into visions and images, which continue the visual storytelling.
As the Chair of the international OISTAT Scenography Commission (2009-2011), Hirvikoski works as a bridge-builder in the cooperation between various countries. She is also highly regarded as a researcher and teacher in the field in the Finnish universities and educational institutions in the field.
The photographer Marjukka Vainio is renowned for her distinctive, aesthetic works, in which plants or their parts, colours and shapes are looked at in great detail. The expressive images can be seen as depicting both the symbolism of the cycle of nature as well as layers of the life and memory.
Vainio’s works are born through a multistage process with the help of her self-developed exposure and printing techniques. She often also uses a photogram and exposes materials, parts of plants or objects directly on a photosensitive surface. The method harks back to the roots of photography: light, chemistry and optical phenomena.
In her work, Vainio, who graduated from the University of Art and Design Helsinki, emphasises the respect for traditions of photography, handicrafts and beauty. Simplified expressions and the large-scale prints of her most recent works introduce also a sculptural element into her images.
As an artist, Vainio has followed her own path, even though she is regarded as being of the Helsinki School. Her works are presented in numerous private and museum collections.
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Photo: Lehtikuva