First published:Summer 2007
With his pictures of celebrities Imppu is the Andy Warhol of the backwoods, but his powerful designs bear a closer resemblance to the symbols of Native Americans and Aboriginal people, to Buddhist meditation images, or even to some technical circuit drawings, and connect the viewer to ultra-reality. The Finnish national epic Kalevala describes Sampo, the wonderful and inexhaustible source of treasures that opens up the world of opportunities. In Imppu's art, the boundless richness of folklore becomes a modern visual-spatial language – epic 'picture singing'.
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The pictures have no frames, and only a piece of string attached for hanging. Cardboard and the backs of old flyers are used as mounts for the pictures. Imppu is well-liked in the community, and local people often ask him to make drawings from their own pictures. This really is disposable art, since the magazine pictures yellow and the ink disappears quickly in the sunlight unless somehow protected. They are like wonderful butterflies that flutter for a brief moment in the colourful light.
This is an article extract; read the full article in Raw Vision #59
