Susanne Aaltonen: Knowing How Little I Need Her Now

×

Expand

Susanne Aaltonen, “My Time With Her is Limited (1/2),” 2018

acrylic, graphite and family photograph on wood panel, 24” x 30” (courtesy the artist and Paul Kuhn Gallery, Calgary)

Susanne Aaltonen is a Canadian artist currently living and working in Calgary, Alberta. Through various levels of concealment, her work confronts generations of dysfunction and trauma within her family. Aaltonen’s sketch books articulate her distress within the family in written and drawn form while her paintings delve into the layers of angst. Multiple coats of various colours are applied and dried onto wooden painting panels. A photographic image is then imprinted onto the painted surface and sealed with an acrylic medium. Carefully and with deliberate precision, Aaltonen then begins to carve and etch into the surface. By using various sizes of gouging tools the ensuing effect is suggestive of a physical and emotional erosion.

Of her work the artist writes: “…exposing what’s buried underneath reflects a superficial attempt to unearth and further understand the trauma. Initially understood as an attempt to analyze the dynamic within my family, the act of carving begins to resemble more of a meditative act that leads towards reluctance. The resulting work evokes the uneasy balance between seeking reconciliation and the emotional burden of such an attempt.”

Aaltonen received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2016 and in 2017 she was part of the Banff Artist in Residency (BAiR) for Emerging Artists at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.