Mirja Oksanen, ‘Protection (A bunny)’

The recent series of painting is of small decorative objects that fit into your hand. The objects are smooth and cool to hold. These opalite figures are sold as healing, even protective objects. They are mass produced yet they become personal when they live close to you on a windowsill or on a bedside table. The paintings are an attempt to look more closely what makes these objects special to us. They are an attempt to question why we attach meaning and significance to certain objects and treasure them. We surround ourselves with objects and they offer us comfort. They may remind us of others and of the gifts that they bestowed on us as a piece of their love. The objects seem to glow from within, and their colours change constantly. This makes them powerful and alluring despite their small scale. When painting the glass bird, I was thinking about the sound of a dawn chorus. In the painting the bird has met its partner even if only as a reflection of itself. Investigation into objects and their relationship within a domestic space is an ongoing preoccupation in my work. Whilst these paintings are of isolated objects, they are a part of ongoing project to record my surroundings. My background as a sculptor influences my interest in objects in relation to spaces they inhabit but now as a painter rather than as a maker. Transparency, reflections, and shadows describe the objects in their environment and their connections to it and to each other.