GALLERY ASKI: LAURA IISALO, PAULA SARASTE, AARNI VAARNAMO – REVIVED SPIRITS

Opening on the eve of All Saints’ Day, the exhibition Revived Spirits (Henkiin herätetyt) invites the deceased into this time through art. The exhibition is composed of two series of works, united by a sense of longing. Laura Iisalo’s Pigeon Heart is based on the life of the artist’s great-great-grandmother. Paula Saraste and Aarni Vaarnamo’s Karuizawa (Happy Birthday John) is a video work about an attempt to meet a world-famous musician in Japan.

The Bride from the Past
At the heart of the Pigeon Heart series is Siiri. The mother of six and an artistically talented woman, fell ill with sleeping sickness, Encephalitis Lethargica, in 1923. She never recovered and spent the last 16 years of her life in Pitkäniemi Mental Hospital. Iisalo interprets Siiri’s fate as her descendant and as a woman who has been free to make choices in life.
Iisalo has created sets, reconstructed Siiri’s clothing, and gathered objects that build a new, imagined reality through photography, moving image, and sculptures. At the center is an old, worn wooden chair from the hospital and a photograph taken at Pitkäniemi. In the middle of the garden, in peace and quiet, sits the bride. The works address the fate of many of Siiri’s contemporaries— women denied the freedom of choice.

A Love Story Beyond Boundaries
Aarni Vaarnamo and Paula Saraste’s Karuizawa (Happy Birthday John) is a 19-minute video work filmed in Japan in the fall of 2024. The work is site-specific, filmed at locations where John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent time in the 1970s, including the Hotel Mampei, where the couple stayed.
The soundtrack includes a partly AI-generated phone conversation between Paula Saraste and John Lennon. They discuss their relationship and arrange a meeting in Karuizawa. The work combines landscape-based storytelling with themes of longing for love and constructed memory.

Laura Iisalo (b. 1980) will graduate from Turku Academy of Fine Arts in December 2025. She is at the beginning of her artistic career but has worked as a freelance photographer and writer since 2011. Iisalo’s works often rely on photography but also incorporate moving images and sculptural elements. Her work Pulumorsian (2025) is part of the Finnish National Gallery’s collection.

lauraiisalo.com 

Instagram: @laura.iisalo

Paula Saraste (b.1981) and Aarni Vaarnamo (b.1989) are visual artists and filmmakers. They hold Master’s degrees in Fine Arts from the University of the Arts Helsinki, Academy of Fine Arts. Their works have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions, as well as at film festivals and screenings in Finland and internationally. In 2024–2025, their works have been shown at Filmwerkstatt Münster in Germany, Slow Art Center in Nagoya, and Aomori Contemporary Art Center in Japan. Saraste’s works have been exhibited at Galerie Heike Arndt and HilbertRaum in Berlin, as well as Myymälä2, Forum Box, and Valokuvagalleria Hippolyte in Helsinki. Vaarnamo’s films have been screened at L’Europe Autour de l’Europe in Paris, Pacific Meridian Film Festival in Vladivostok, and the Hamburg International Short Film Festival.

paulasaraste.com 

Instagram: paula_saraste 

vimeo.com/aarnivaarnamo

An artist talk on Sunday, 16th of November, from 3pm to 4pm.