NEW NORTH - NEW PERSPECTIVES

NOUA is pleased to present New North - New Perspectives as the final exhibition of 2022. The exhibition first opened at Northern Photographic Centre (NPC) in Oulu, Finland in September 2022. The exhibition is curated by NOUA/ Marianne Bjørnmyr & Dan Mariner on the occasion of the NPCs 35th Anniversary. Now, a selection of the original exhibition has travelled to Bodø, and includes work of Juuso Noronkoski (FI), Kukka-Maria Rosenlund (FI), Emma Sandström & Stefano Conti (SE/IT), Ulla Schildt (NO/FI), and Sheung Yiu (HK/FI).

The curators Bjørnmyr and Mariner are through the exhibition presenting five Finnish and Nordic artists that convey their ideas and concepts by pushing the boundaries of photographic imagery and presentation, incorporating cultural narratives prevalent in the North. New emphasis on surface, materiality and process has governed photographic production over the last decades, with the photographic message emerging as interaction between politics, technology and culture. With a focus on experience, consciousness and interaction, new dialogues emerge between the artist, imagery and audience. 

Studies of the earth, science and explorative voyages into society are deeply rooted within Nordic culture and are still at the forefront of artistic commentary throughout the region. In January 1833 the Finnish poet ​​Elias Lönnrot began compiling the Kalevala, a work of poetry compiled from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling an epic story about the Creation of the Earth. Throughout his career Lönnrot made a total of eleven field trips around Finland within a period of fifteen years, with each trip yielding a large number of new works. The artists presented in the exhibition have themselves embarked on their own forms of field trips and are a representation of how today’s visual culture navigates explorations of land, scientific studies and heritage. 

The artists Juuso Noronkoski (FI), Kukka-Maria Rosenlund (FI), Emma Sandström & Stefano Conti (SE/IT), Ulla Schildt (NO/FI), and Sheung Yiu (HK/FI) all share a common interest in perception and technology, natural spaces and cycles, observations and transformations in human history. By gathering and recording material, organising, monitoring and measuring, the artists are creating the unexpected, pushing the boundaries of the image. The photographic installations give us a fresh perspective on the north and the habitat that surrounds us – by subjecting us to repeated challenges to the photographic image through presence and absence, subtraction and addition.