Welcome to the world of Sirkku Rosi, a participant in this summer’s EKKM exhibition “Always is Everywhere,” where you’ll encounter her seductive pastels and surreal dreams among the other artists' works. In her practice, she explores the connection between bodily and visual art, as well as the lived body. Interview and photography by Silver Mikiver. Rosi is wearing a hat by Paula Kasu and a shirt from Atelier M.O.D.
What are you looking for in life in general?
I think that in the end, I am looking for happiness and a sense of meaning. More practically, I hope I can keep on working with art and have some nice adventures and spend time with people I love.
I do my best, but sometimes I tend to stress and plan too much (usually it does not help at all).
How did watercolour become your primary medium?
It was a kind of accident, a summer course during my last years of study. Until then, I did not want to choose my primary medium; in fact, I thought that it was very annoying, the default idea that one has some primary medium. I wanted to do everything, and was painting, carving, working a lot with printmaking, and engaging in performance art. But then there was this 2-week aquarelle course, and I fell in love. Everything just worked so easily, and as a great plus, with aquarelles, you don´t really need to worry about any poisonous smells or liquids.
What aspects have to come together to make a great Sirkku Rosi painting?
I think there is some kind of magic when the work is ready, or when I am satisfied with it. It might be very different from what I originally sketched, but there must be tension and some kind of beauty at the same time.
You have a strong interest in history - how has it affected your art? What do we tryly need to learn from history?
This is a hard one! There could be so many answers... That we never learn, but still both in a good and a bad way, changes are possible? And that we are sharing our being with our environment always. And that everything can not be controlled.
I am really into old art, and I think it is very fascinating how different kinds of aesthetic things always had a specific value, and that usually there is always more knowledge included. Like old Roman frescoes (Livia's garden room with its plants and birds, etc.), beautiful fabrics from the late Renaissance, and the magnificent Dance Macabre painting you have in Tallinn, for example.
We discussed how you often tend to conceal or hide the faces of subjects and do the same with self-portraits. Why so?
Ha, in fact, I usually hide just half of the face. And I love masks, I am a carnival soul. I am very interested in the magical effect of wearing a mask, being something or someone else for a while.
At one point, I realised that in my paintings, I usually had either face or body clearly, but rarely both at the same time. When I realised that, I started to pay attention to it, and challenge it a bit. Maybe I sometimes have the feeling that if both the face and the body are seen at the same time, it becomes too much. But I am working with this! More bodies with faces are coming, I think.
Nature is very important to you. What do you think, how could we FEEL more connected to nature, and why is it imperative to have this connection?
Maybe we should surrender to and accept the fact that we ARE nature. I think realising the porosity of being and constant circulation of all matter in some sense is the key to survival, to have a future. It might also just feel nice to see yourself as a part of a universal being, and get along with your neighbours (all those bugs and plants around us and fauna in us). Have a nice bush pee in the summer night and spend some time with the plants nearby, lie on the hot summer rocks, and remember that it is the body part of the earth.
You raise chickens - what have you learned about having them in your life and their way of doing things?
Oh, they are such a personalities! It has been mesmerising to learn this different way of communication. Like with other mammals, we are already sharing quite a lot, but birds are different. And yet we are sharing so much, like enjoying the first rays of sun in the spring and sudden tiredness in the afternoon.
And finally, please give some advice for aspiring artists!
There are so many ways, and besides hard work, it is also about good luck. I think there are so many more good artists than good opportunities. I think my path until here was also a bit more slow and unusual, since I first studied art pedagogy and then worked in many fields, dance, music, and visual arts, at the same time. But I think that all that has been also growing my cumulative knowledge. I am mostly known for aquarelle paintings, but somatic perceiving has an important part in my painting practice. This sounds like a cliche, but follow your heart and intuition - I think in love and art, it is the only way. And be open to opportunities when they arise. And remember, if somebody does not like what you are doing, it is only a single opinion.