A-403
Start Date:
17.09.2026
Start Time:
12:00
End Date:
17.09.2026
Koht: A-403
Aeg: N 17.9. kell 12:00-13:00
Emma Sarpaniemi is a visual artist based between Helsinki and Reykjavík. Sarpaniemi received a BA in photography from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK) in 2019. In her practice, Sarpaniemi explores womanhood and definitions of femininity through performative self-portraits. For her, self-portraiture is a playground, a realm for exploring representation and resisting conventions of the gaze. The portrayed characters offer the possibility to continuously reconstruct oneself. The shutter release cable, often clearly visible in her photographs, serves as a symbol of the subject being in control of their own image. The characters she creates are fictional, but they are not alter egos. For her it’s inevitable that she regoznised herself in the images, where identity, reality and imagination intertwine.
For Sarpaniemi, photography is a medium of joy and playfulness, empowering to dream of new possibilities of femininity, gender roles and the gaze. Collaboration and collectivity also hold important roles in her work. Traces of friends’ presence appear in individual portraits through elements such as a painted house, wooden frames, or a friend focusing behind the camera. Her works have been extensively exhibited in galleries, museums, and festivals throughout Europe and are included in notable public art collections as well as numerous private collections.