Tanja Ahola

Tanja Ahola graduated from the University of Art and Design in 1998 with a Master of Arts degree. She lives and works in Helsinki. Tanja has been looking at people through the lens of the camera for twenty years, and since her school days she has had the opportunity to work as a photographer and graphic designer with some of the best theatre, dance and music artists in Finland. She finally expanded her expressive technique into painting in 2011.

MY FAVOURITE THINGS exhibition

Paintings of escapism. When you look for it, you find something you love, but it’s not enough.

Beauty is the ultimate value for me, but it has been broken. A craving builds up around it, which also makes you feel a twinge in your conscience for a reason. Beauty has become an everyday commodity whose value is defined by money. Access to beauty can be bought. The pursuit of beauty is in danger of becoming an obsession with conquest and a way of looking away from difficulties. Aesthetics and the divine values of beauty have been stolen from the wrong hands.

How to relearn the sense of beauty? How can we pinch ourselves to find the things that matter?

The stage bird decorates its nest to take care of something important. Beauty can create security. Beauty has a purpose, except when the search for it is ignored. By taking care of what is important to you, you also take care of your environment.

My father was an industrial designer. To him, durability and functionality were beautiful things. My mother saw beauty in the everyday details; in bodies, clothes and plants. I want to continue to promote sustainable values through my work. I want to find my own path to beauty, beyond what is offered from the outside. It is not easy. And it shouldn’t be.