Matters of heart
Art comes from the heart. Although an artist's work is physical, art itself is an abstract experience. It is concemed with the concept of light and immaterial feeling. In the process of finding connections between one's mental experience and the relativ world, Korhonen 's works act as gates rather than reflections. Going through these gates takes the viewer into his or her own inner self and world of experience. ln Korhonen's works, one always looks inwards, at one's inner space ~ at the matters of heart.


Seeker
Throughout her artistic career, Auli Korhonen has clearly and consistently striven for the experience of pure consciousness. In the 80s, this process led her to create ethereal, spatial works. During the 90s, she retumed to highly bodily studies. The series of the Touch of Ice is a continuation of this search leaving the bodily surface behind and now emphasising depth.


Artistic work
Auli Korhonen has had solo exhibitions since 1983 when she made her debut with the exhibition "The Stream of Life". She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions. Her public works of art include the installation "Sun Bow" for the hall of the new office building in Porvoo and the largewood reliefs for the church and the outdoor relief for the parish hall in Kerava. She is also known as one of the founders of the Art School Maa, its promoter and director in the 80s. According to Korhonen, making works of art means surrendering oneself to a process that takes place at the level of consciousness and intuition, not so much guided by intellect. Insight is a plunge inta oneself; a state of Being.


Silence
A deep silence is where there are no boundaries, where everything and nothing combine to produce a single experience. A space where one is fully awake and in a state of deep rest at the same time. Is this possible for a human being? Korhonen thinks it is. A work of art calls forth a yearning for that state of Being. A deep silence enables growing perception and creativity. The mind wanders freely towards unexplored depths. The expanded state of experience produces new consciousness that is reflected in the creative process. It has the wisdom of a new experience. Thus, an intuitive, universal experience is tumed into the form of individual reflection and implementation. It produces a linkage that nourishes life. According to Korhonen, this is the wild dynamics of silence.


Her recidence in Portugal

Philosophy and religion
Korhonen is philosophical in many ways. She is fascinated by order and insight rather than chaos and ecstasy. However, she says that reading and theories as such are not interesting
unIess they help understand the secret of life and stimulate the various levels of experience. She strongly believes that differentiating between subjective experience and objective knowledge is harmfuI and not at all interesting. Religion should also mean perceiving the Unity; broadening and liberating. In her art, Auli Korhonen concentrates on exploring the depths of her own mind and, through her extremely subjective inner experiences, reaches a confusingly universal and philosophical level. When going through that gate into space, the viewer feels a light touch of human hair.



Aulis Van in Death Valley Arizona 1988

Adventures while traveling in different countries, has made impact on her artistic expression.

 



Auli has always been an activ globetrotter. When she visited the american artist James Turrell, he tought her to aim her gun.

"Let your conscious mind be focused on the target. You are one whith the goal".

One-pointedness has allways been one of Auli´s characteristics. She dosent fear to face challenges.

 

 Photos
Web
made by Kjell Eidendal

Text by Arja Hörhammer

Based on interviews