Presented by WhiteBox Annex and ChaShaMa

September 8 – Extended through Friday, October 15, 2021
1791 Lexington Avenue

Juxtaposed with exhibition Sweet Song of Harlem, shown at El Barrio’s Artspace PS 109, Jaakko Heikkilä’s photographs of Venice ask: What is the real Nobility?

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Heikkilä’s work is rooted in a strong tradition of documentarism in Finnish photography, but traditional documentation has never fully satisfied the artist. Beginning with one of his earliest photographic series, which captured the identity and living environment of the inhabitants of his homeland, Heikkilä had a desire to look deeper into the surface, into people’s souls. At that time, Heikkilä started working with a panoramic camera, which he continued to use in his Harlem series. This technology has a unique expression, expanding the space and reducing the human scale, thereby drawing attention to the intricate details of the image.

Most of the images that depict a larger environment or capture the intimate setting of a protagonist’s home, include a window — a motif whose descriptive possibilities Heikkilä has often used in his photographic series. The image of the window has fascinated artists throughout the ages. In painting, this fascination can be tracked through the 15th century. In photography, it begins in 1826 with a heliograph made by the Frenchman Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, which captured a view from the window of his study. The window acts as a transparent interface between indoor and outdoor space, between the private and public. There are many different meanings, metaphors, and symbolisms associated with this image.

–Excerpt from essay by Ritva Röminger-Czako, Bonn, January 2021.

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Read an interview of Heikkilä at Art Review City:
https://artreviewcity.com/2021/09/22/sweet-song-of-harlem/

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“Venice in Harlem” is made possible with support from ChaShaMa

See more on their website: https://chashama.org/
Follow them on social media: @chashama #chashama