Anna Reivilä (born 1988, Helsinki, Finland), received her MA in 2018, from Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Helsinki. As a land artist and photographer her work is deeply engrained in the tradition of black and white photography and is the result of long periods of time spent in uninhabited region. She makes vibrant, crisp images of her alterations in the landscape - ropes precariously weaved and knotted around objects: trees, rocks and floating ice. These images, a combination of photography, sculpture and performance, make up her photographic series, Bond, in which coverings and overlays necessitate a very gentle and deliberate hand while interacting with powerful natural elements.
'According to Japanese religious ceremonies, ropes and ties symbolize the connections among people and the divine, as a means to identify sacred space and time. Inspired by Nobuyoshi Araki's images and their combination of raw violence and beauty, I study the relationship between man and nature by referring to the Japanese bondage tradition. The Japanese word for bondage, kinaki-bi, literally means 'the beauty of tight binding'. It is a delicate balance between being held together and being on the verge of breaking. I search spaces where nature’s elements combine to create interesting natural tensions and continue this dialogue through my interpretations by extending, wrapping and pulling upon these indigenous forms. I create a new sense of volume from the existing components. Using ropes as lines is my form of drawing. The lines create interactions, making connections between the elements — a reinterpretation of the landscape. These three-dimensional drawings are physically unstable — they exist only for the moment. By recording the process the photograph becomes part of the piece. The lines drawn by the ropes describe how shapes of the elements and the connections between them come visible when something alien is added. I’m not only changing their essence, but also my own point of view. Every space is different and I’m interested in how the volume of any given site can be stretched by the use of several simple lines’. (Anna Reivilä)