Born 1965 in Turku, Finland. Lives in Turku, FI.
Saara Ekström works mainly with photography and film, but also uses drawing and sculpture and other techniques, which she frequently combines in complex installations. The photos in the two series A Single Charm is Doubtful and If Inside is Let In show compositions with objects that are all intended to add beauty to our lives but appear, when seen separately, to be distanced and slightly lugubrious. The titles refer to a poem by Gertrude Stein, an American writer and catalyst in modern art and literature, whose experiments with stream-of-consciousness and rhythmical word paintings were aimed at evoking “the excitingness of pure being”. Like Stein’s poems, Saara Ekström draws our attention to the fact that the objects around us are not always what they appear to be, that they may have a secret nature. Flowers and plants have traditionally been imbued with a strong symbolism, and 18th century still-life painting stands out as a vital inspiration for the photographs. Ekström updates the vanitas theme in classical painting, and her still-lifes can be regarded as a modern version of symbols of mortality.
Education
1995–1997 Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, US
1983-1986 Turku Art Academy, Turku, FI
Selected bibliography
Bera Nordal: Liquid Life, Nordic Watercolour Museum, Skärhamn, 2008
Yuki Kondo: Ephemeral – Flash for Eternity, Aomori Contemporary Art Centre, Aomori, 2006
Tutta Palin: “The Smiling Patograph”; Patrik Söderlund: “Beneath the Tamarind Tree”, Grotesque & Arabesque, Helsinki, 2005
Tomas Träskman: Mnemonic, Pori Art Museum, Koteva, 2003
Berndt Arell: “Still Life – Life With Death In It”, Ars Fennica 2002, Helsinki, 2002 www.saaraekstrom.com