Maija Toropainen: Fruit Machine
“Playing a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles.” — Bernard Suits, The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia, 2014
The world is a game. In Maija Toropainen’s work, colour is the central element. In the Fruit Machine exhibition, the artist composes layers of colour fields in a game-like manner. As artist and colour theorist Josef Albers noted, no colour can be seen in isolation—its perception and intensity are always affected by the colours surrounding it. Similarly, no event in the world can be separated from its context. Every action or gesture influences another.
In this exhibition, Toropainen explores the causality of events, comparing them to random disruptions or strokes of luck. “A painting needs something disruptive to become noticeable. In my works, that disruptive element is the circle, which activates the entire visual space. My circles are not drawn with a compass; their shapes are organic. And what could be more organic than fruit?” the artist explains.
The theme and title, Fruit Machine, also refer to time and history. A fruit machine is another name for a slot machine—a seductive, risky game of chance. Some kind of fruit machine is always running in the background when we talk about fruit production and colonialism. Individuals make ethical and political choices in their everyday shopping. “My idea is that the world of chance-based gambling should be turned into a world of persistent negotiation, where every voice matters, and everyone gets to be heard,” Toropainen reflects. Right now, we are witnessing how the fruit machines of the one-armed bandits lead to a world of cultural cuts—this is precisely why it is vital to make art, because art belongs to everyone.
Galleria A2, Annankatu 12, 00120 HelsinkiFree entrance