Toivo Heinimäki’s exhibition Map of Fog II1 explores the sense of attachment to a place while its material and immaterial nature is in a state of constant, inevitable change. What good can change bring – and what small or ordinary beauty can be lost in the midst of large-scale, rapid change?
The exhibition at Photo North consists of images, glimpses and other fragments captured by Heinimäki in his hometown of Helsinki, which he has been collecting and archiving since 2019. Personal experience and curiosity about space and the environment have led the artist to record his immediate surroundings while pondering questions about the nature of changing urban space. In addition to his own photographs, Heinimäki uses observational and archival photographs of Helsinki in his collage-like work, from which he creates new compositions through darkroom work and other methods.
The exhibition features photographic works made using a variety of techniques. Heinimäki works on the fringes of documentary photography, using colour and black-and-white darkroom techniques, screen printing, photocopying and inkjet printing. The use of recycled materials such as outdated photographic paper, found or second-hand wood and metal creates different levels of temporality in the exhibition. This collage-like, idiosyncratic archive, realised through various techniques and materials, draws a visual map of Heinimäki’s hometown, where change is inevitable.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue-like magazine publication in which architects Kaisa Karvinen (Unintentional compositions, 2024) and Lauri Klemola (Ghosts, 2024) and Photo North producer Taija Jyrkäs (On Walking Right, 2024) share their thoughts on the fringes of the current exhibition’s theme. The publication is free and can be taken home from the exhibition.
1 The title of the exhibition (and the exhibition publication) is a direct quote from the title of Map of Fog, produced and edited by the American Marcos Soriano. Published in three issues between 2000 and 2010, the zine consisted of articles by Soriano in which he mapped events and phenomena in his hometown of San Francisco with a gonzo journalistic approach. The zine’s second issue, which came into Heinimäki’s hands by chance, inspired the artist to look closer to home – to his hometown and to everyday phenomena and environments.
