Now is Now

NANNA HÄNNINEN
NOW IS NOW
The series Now is Now The photographs exhibited are part of the new work group Now is Now, which is of particular, personal significance to the artist.
The background of series Now is Now of works by Hänninen is her interest in everyday emotions and experiences that, although every human being is unique, can be felt and shared by all. Certain psychological patterns - what we do or how we respond - connect people and generate an emotional community. In this way, a personal experience or private perception can acquire a more universal meaning.
The photographs show distinctly reduced still lifes of crumpled paper which – partly showing texts - come from Hänninen’s work books of recent years, during which the artist was confronted with many personal challenges.
The group of works deals with anxieties, existential threats and survival in the jungle of emotions. This applies not only to the artist and her experiences but also to us, the viewers of her works. The series explores the importance of the present as well as time itself and its relativity. The past is just a memory and the future is a construction of the mind, and between these two is here and now, the only moment on which we have direct influence.
The series Now is Now is also exploring about reasoning and balancing. It also ponders on the necessity of growing up and the relationship between childhood and adulthood. The series also explores the life and nature on earth threatened by the major challenges of climate change. The series of topics of the series creates a kind of metaphysical simulation of a kind of life.
The aesthetically precise works themselves are tender and devoid of all superfluous requisites and effects. The predominant color is white, whereby Hänninen formally creates a link to her earlier works from the year 2000. The result is a minimalist aesthetic which opens a tremendously large associative space and confronts the viewer with his or her own memories and experiences.

“Accustomed viewer sees in addition to a photographed scene the choices that the artist has done. The present is not only what was in front of the camera but the viewer also has meta-view to the art and its author. In Nanna Hänninen’s artworks photograph plays a key role. The role on the other hand seems to be to maintain a reference to the external reality, while it also creates its own physical reality due to form and technique.” “The motion between the detection and concealment,” the essay, Jonni Roos 2014.
The work series has been worked out during the years 2014-2017 in Paris, Provence, Californian deserts and in Kuopio. Co-operation with climate scientists at the Finnish Meteorological Institute in Eastern Finland has affected the work.

Nanna Hänninen was born in 1973 in Finland, in Rovaniemi and she lives and works in Finland in Kuopio. she studied at the lahti institute of Design in Finland, the Hochschule für Kunst und Gestaltung in Zürich and she is a graduate of the University of Art of Photography Department in Helsinki at 2002. She is one of the Helsinki School members and one of the most internationally successful Finnish photographic artists.

Her works have been shown in several solo shows and numerous group exhibitions and are part of international institutional and private collections around the world, like the Kiasma, EMMA and Finnish Museum of Photography in Finland etc. Along with artistic work, Nanna Hänninen has founded Neemo Ltd (www.neemo.fi), which provides consulting for public administration and management through art. Nanna Hänninen is a recipient of the five-year artist grant from State of Finland.