Mikko Rikala

Viewing Room

Tuesday, 29 October 2024

Mikko Rikala

Silence (5th hour), 2024
29 x 43,5 cm

Pigment print, C60 ferric oxide type one cassette

Mikko Rikala’s works represent research into spatiality and temporality, emerging from both philosophical as well as scientific, nature-related thoughts. He uses the photographic process as a tool for gathering material that helps him explore what’s behind the rational self. Throughout his career, he has focused on different conceptual ways of visualizing the passage of time and the cycles of nature. In his recent body of work, Rikala draws inspiration from Romanticism, exploring humanity’s relationship with the natural world and the paradox of finding the sublime within the mundane.

He encourages the viewer to reflect on how deeper meanings can emerge from the ordinary through focused observation. In his ongoing project Silence, he records his presence in various natural locations, concentrating for one hour at a time on the silence and subtle environmental sounds around him. This deep listening and attentive presence, a concept also central to the works The Joy Prevails, create a heightened sense of visual consciousness, allowing the passage of time and the simple act of being alive to take on new significance.