Anni Leppälä
Anni Leppälä (b.1981 in Helsinki) graduated from Turku Arts Academy/Polytechnic in 2004 and continued her MA-studies in the University of Art and Design in Helsinki. She has taken part in various group exhibitions in Finland and abroad from the year 2001 forwards. She lives and works in Helsinki.
"The photos of Anni Leppälä present an immediate feeling of non-realism. They are not about recording reality faithfully; instead, she aims for a symbolic interpretation. The power of photos is in her ability to create a dynamic between that which can be sensed and that which cannot, where each object, detail and figure has a spiritual dimension and carries messages catering to several interpretations. This property in her work could be described as hermeneutic, and this is why her photos are like windows opening onto another dimension and function like registers that are rewritten with every interpretation."
- Luigi Fassi, curator
Text in the catalogue of The V Triennial of Finnish Art / In Search of the Miraculous
Kunsthalle Helsinki, 2007
"Stability and constancy are the main themes of Anni Leppälä´s photography. For her the photograph represent a means to seize a fleeting moment, while at the same time she is well aware of the transience of time. She asks, "How to capture a feeling or a memory?" The artist acknowledges the paradox of this aim: just when you are trying to capture a moment and immobilize it, you have to let it go. Anni Leppälä´s pictures follow a winding path bordering on the real and unreal, the visible and invisible world. The viewer, too, has to look for his or her place on this borderline. The pictures of an unreal, distant world are fascinating and appealing, but there always remains an unsurpassable curtain between them and the viewer. There is no entry to these "non-places". Like when you wake up you will not be able to return to the dream you had, even if you wanted to stay there for just one moment longer. Within the dreamlike atmosphere the viewer catches details that are full of carefully thought-out meanings."
- Michal Kolecek, Zdena Koleckova, Silja Lehtonen
Text in the catalogue of the exhibition Rebus Sic Stantibus, Under the Circumstances
Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova, Turku, Finland, 2008
Emil Filla Gallery, Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic, 2009