Press  3.9.2016

Merja Ranki, exhibition
Body, Death and Laughter

Galleria Rantakasarmi 20.10. – 13.11.2016

Suomenlinna Helsinki Finland

”Death came to visit for the first time carrying a bad disease, I was very young and not too amused by it. He started coming over and over again, with different kind of buddies, but they all had mean faces. Luckily there was some laughter after all, now and then, in between. And to my great surprise, here I am, no doubt, and still laughing.”   Merja Ranki

The exhibition consists of narrative portraits, human size ceramic sculptures. The ceramic copy of the physical body serves as a scene, where imaginary components mix with biographical facts. Ageing, getting wrinkles, bodily ailments are touched with playful mythological immortality and seen with a sense of humor. The artist has been inspired by the portrait of Nefertiti along with some other ancient sclptures of the Egyptian tombs. Together with the artist’s professional CV, there is an other, the CV of the body written in latin. It tells a different story.