raija jokinen

I am Raija Jokinen based in Southern Finland. I did my Master degree at the University of Arts and Design Helsinki and I have been working on the field of textile design and arts over 30 years. In addition to Finland, my artworks have been exhibiting internationally mainly on European countries, USA and some Asian countries.

My artistic approach is focused on the everyday feelings, situations and thoughts we all have. I observe emotional reactions we have to everyday stuff and especially relationships of the emotional and physical surroundings, including our body and mind. I am dealing with a question about what is really tangible and what is not and where is the borderline between physical things and emotions. I am searching the interface of spirit and materials: Do we know precisely what is the physical and what is spiritual.

I am fascinated how body-related details, such as skin, blood vessels and nerve tracks resemble the forms of roots or branches and many other organic things. I am excited in their apparent similarity and infinite variation and how these visual allegories can be found in almost everywhere. These forms are optimal for the life-support functions, and maybe also for our mind. I am also concerned about the climate change and species extinction and depict our personal relationship to nature.

My works are mostly in a form of a human being. This form is my ”canvas”. I am describing things on a body, because feelings feel on a body.

As a material I am using flax (lin, le lin) in various forms like fabrics, felt and paper pulp. The material plays also a role on the content of my works. Sometimes I make links to the history or rebuild the  lost and destroyed objects in a way I imagine they were. In addition to free fiber techniques I am using machine and hand stitching. Because I am dealing the contents connected to nature and preserving the surroundings I am trying to keep on with ecological manners with my working methods too and part of my materials are reused.