December 7th 2024
Models of Disintegration
APD Center Hanoi Vietnam 23.11.-8.12.2024.
”The exhibition Models of Disintegration is made up of works planned for the premises of the APD Center from the Black Motor installation, Nostalgia and Departure video animations and related drawings. The central theme of the exhibition is the breakdown of structures and, on an emotional level, longing and loss.
Decomposition is a universal process that takes place on different scales everywhere in the world, in Vietnam as well as in Finland. It is an irreversible change caused by humans or the passage of time. Disintegration is necessary for development. It is both a destructive and a transformative force that creates space for the construction of the new.
There are countless examples of disintegration. Large stars explode and give birth to new star systems or collapse into black holes. Weather and erosion break down rocks and shape landscapes, mountains and coastlines. Organic materials turn into soil and feed new life. Degradation in cells occurs as part of aging and diseases. The disintegration of social structures gives way to new cultural practices.
I have lost several relatives and acquaintances. The experiences of loss and grief have felt like an internal disintegration. I made my first work related to this theme in 2002. On a personal level, my works deal with sadness, abandonment and longing due to losses. On a general level, the works can be seen as pictures of the current state of the world; wars, the polarization of cultures and climate change shape and destroy the old”.
February 4th 2024
PRAAK
The exhibition in Oulun taidemuseo 10.1.-26.5.2024 is spread over three exhibition spaces on the ground floor of the museum and the lobby. The exhibition can be reached through the lowered space. In the large A-hall you can experience a multi-media body work, which thematically continues in the C-hall in form of drawings and archival materials. New installation Musta Moottori deals with evil. It is installed in the dim space.
My work revolves around the themes of relinquishment and longing on an induvidual level, as well as social desconstruction and decadence. The works repeat the imagining and modeling of an utopian and dystopian structures, on the other hand, their collapse and disintegration.
The video animations have been made in collaboration with Paula Lehtonen, Antti Laakso, Kai Kostack, Oliver Walter and Martin Felke. Verneri Pohjola, Antti Niemelä and Alessandro Scarlatti are responsible for the sound worlds and music.
September 2nd 2021
Laituri 6, Quay 6
Quay 6 by Jaakko Niemelä is an installation constructed from scaffolding that greets visitors as they arrive on the ferry from mainland Helsinki and disembark at the northern quay of Vallisaari Island. Climate change has drastically accelerated alarming phenomena such as the melting of Greenland’s northern ice sheet: if this glacier were to vanish completely, it would cause global sea levels to rise about six metres, roughly the same height as Niemelä’s bright-red wooden structure, which has approximately the same base dimensions as Vallisaari’s old stone quay. The water dripping down the red scaffolding creates the illusion of something leaking. The structure of the installation illustrates mutual interdependency: its various parts support each other – if one were removed, the entire tower would collapse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KekSwm_G3PQ
December 16th 2019
Nostalgia exhibition
I have opened Nostalgia exhibition 13.th of December 2019 in Helsinki Art Museum. This exhibition is the end of a seven yerar long project. The exhibition is open until 15.th of March 2020.
September 27th 2018
Nostalgia-project
Videoanimations "The Seventh Wave" and "Nostalghia" projected in a huge scale on the Opera roof, Oslo Kulturnatt 14.th September 2018. Animations were performed with live music by Chamber Choir Ensembme 96 and Sisu percussion ensemble.
September 13th 2018
Nostalgia-project
Two videoanimations at Turku Artmuseum Studio
14 Sept-18 Nov 2018
“I’m a sea captain’s son, and much of the time when I was young father was away at sea. That’s why I never had a chance to really get to know him. When he returned home upon his retirement, he got dementia very soon and lost his ability to speak. He died in 1985, when I was 26 and studying at Kankaanpää Art School for the last year. I have since then understood that my father’s absence and death have had a great impact on my life. The experience has also affected my artistic work and my choice of subject.”
Jaakko Niemelä’s artistic work has since 2012 revolved around a research project on the theme of seafaring and memories of his father. He has followed in the footsteps of his father by visiting by boat the same places where his father had been. He has documented the journeys by drawing, writing and taking both photographs and video, using the materials later to create animations and multimedia installations. The guiding star of the project has been Niemelä’s desire to reacquaint himself with his father.
One key element in Niemelä’s recent works are large constructions erected in the gallery, which make the spatial experience extremely physical and poignant. Nostalgia in the Studio gallery is an installation that consists of two animations projected on a large scale and accompanying structural elements. The animations depict an ocean-going ship on stormy seas and how it gradually breaks down. The soundscape consists of a choral piece by Baroque composer Alessandro Scarlatti and ambient music composed by Jaakko Niemelä’s nephew, thus bringing together three generations of the Niemelä family.
Nostalgia explores the central themes of Niemelä’s art: the breaking and disintegration of large structures, relinquishment and longing, destruction, decay and ending. The first piece in the project was presented at the Lönnström Art Museum in Rauma in 2014. Since then the project has been featured at the Rauma Maritime Museum and the Kunstplass gallery in Oslo in 2017.
Jaakko Niemelä (b. 1959 in Rauma) has worked as an artist for over 30 years, extending his practice from printmaking to installation, light art and video. He studied the architecture of light in Aalto University, and in his work he makes use of his skill as lighting designer. In addition to exhibiting extensively both in Finland and internationally, Niemelä has also created several public monuments and has curated exhibitions. He also collaborates with his wife, sculptor Helena Hietanen.
This exhibition is generously supported by the Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Kone Foundation and Ministry of Education and Culture.
September 27th 2017
Nostalgia-project
Two videoanimations; Nostalghia, 2017 (a collapsing ship) and The Seventh Wave, 2014 (a ship in a storm). Departure, 2017 (a raining tree - installation outside the gallery). Exhibition at Kunstaplass(10), Oslo Norway, 28.th of September - 29.th of October 2017
July 23rd 2017
Lähtö
Lähtö-installation, Rauma Maritime Museum garden 20.th-30th of July 2017
A linder tree has srated to rain water in the museum garden.
My father graduated from this building 1944 and became a captain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfCIbWqG040&feature=youtu.be
January 5th 2017
Kauppa-Lopo
I have made visualization to Minna Canth´s play Kauppa-Lopo. Premiere in Pori Theatre 5.th of January 2017
more information: http://www.porinteatteri.fi/
September 5th 2015
Meilahti Hospital art competition
Jaakko Niemelä won 2.nd Prize in Meilahti Hospital art competition with his proposal "Cones - Lanterns". His proposal consists of three big shiny metal Cones and the pine trees beside them, all elements lighted from inside with computer programmed RGBW - led lights.
