Saturday, January 29, 2011

Pekka Niittyvirta (Artist) 1/31/11

Work

Pekka Niittyvirta Paris Hilton (Dog Chromosome X, Poodle) C-Print, Diasec 2010
*Image is created by inserting genetic data (dogs chromosome X) to the source code of digital image file.

Pekka Niittyvirta Broken Idyl (Bridge) C-Print, Diasec 2008
*Image is modified by insertion of phrases from the propaganda newspaper New Light Of Myanmar to the digital image file's source code.

Pekka Niittyvirta Ghost C-Print 2007
*Image is a result of cultivating plant seeds on film surface. The process takes place in total darkness. The film has not been developed.

Pekka Niittyvirta Spamworks #1 Amber C-Print, Diasec 2010
*Image is originally attachment from junk mail (Viagra, Porn etc.) The average colour of the image has been calculated and then colour opacity reduced to 99%.



Bio

Pekka Niittyvirta is a Finnish artist working mainly in lens-based media. His work often takes form using unconventional processes and methods of production, offshooting from a photographic basis. In his series, "Spamworks," Niittyvirta applies a process of color averaging and opacity changes to virtual spam advertisements, rendering them unidentifiable and eerily similar to one another. (The process turns the spam into various muted solid colors.) Niittyvirta's work mostly functions as "photographic" representations of a process that is often representational of social, political or biological concepts, which share a common connection to the medium of photography; sometimes digital and other times analog.


Quotations

"Critic Anu Uimonen from Helsingin Sanomat (the premier daily Finnish language newspaper), notes that Niittyvirta manages to create an atmosphere of mystery , which awake both questions and stories in viewers mind. She sees in the work the strangeness of manmade environment, especially where it meets nature."
Photographic Gallery Hippolyte

"Niittyvirta's creative work contains a very strong dimension of improvisation and intuition. His extensive production does consist not only of the various photographic works but instead reaches out far beyond his main tool - the camera."
http://www.niittyvirta.com/texts.html


Relates

Niittyvirta's work relates, at times, almost directly to mine. In his series, "Corrupted," Niittyvirta uses a similar process of manipulating image source code with information related to the concept of the image. He uses biological information, like I do, but also includes texts, words, and other information, commenting on social and scientific issues in the modern world. The result is also similar (digital disruption of the image and file degradation.) Niittyvirta's images are either partly or wholly altered with this process. The differences I noticed between my work and that of Niittyvirta lie in the subjects and concept behind the process. My series is more focused in a certain arena of genetic and biological alteration, whereas his takes more of a pop-culture/social stance.


Interview

http://iheartphotograph.blogspot.com/2011/01/pekka-niittyvirta.html


Gallery

Photographic Gallery Hippolyte
http://www.hippolyte.fi/en/


Website

http://www.niittyvirta.com/index.html