”The exhibition Models of Disintegration is made up of works planned for the premises of the APD Center from the Black Motor installation, Nostalgia and Departure video animations and related drawings. The central theme of the exhibition is the breakdown of structures and, on an emotional level, longing and loss.

Decomposition is a universal process that takes place on different scales everywhere in the world, in Vietnam as well as in Finland. It is an irreversible change caused by humans or the passage of time. Disintegration is necessary for development. It is both a destructive and a transformative force that creates space for the construction of the new.

There are countless examples of disintegration. Large stars explode and give birth to new star systems or collapse into black holes. Weather and erosion break down rocks and shape landscapes, mountains and coastlines. Organic materials turn into soil and feed new life. Degradation in cells occurs as part of aging and diseases. The disintegration of social structures gives way to new cultural practices.

“I have lost several relatives and acquaintances. The experiences of loss and grief have felt like an internal disintegration. I made my first work related to this theme in 2002. On a personal level, my works deal with sadness, abandonment and longing due to losses. On a general level, the works can be seen as pictures of the current state of the world; wars, the polarization of cultures and climate change shape and destroy the old.” – Jaakko Niemelä.

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Jaakko Niemelä (b. 1959, Finland) lives and works in Helsinki and Rauma. He has been exhibiting internationally for decades. Addressing a myriad of themes, works have their roots in the artist’s personal experiences yet succeed in expressing universal conditions and meanings; childhood, play, control and surveillance, societal pressures and the fear of loss. Underlying destruction, catastrophe, and transience are central topics in his works. His installation and public artworks are dramatized through lighting, strong shadows, video animations, harsh or mirrored surfaces and heavy, raw industrial materials. Niemelä also plays with the drama of scale, working with both small-sized models to multiple-metre-high scaffoldings, or building-like constructions. Typically his works embrace and dominate their environment, but can equally be as subtle as the words of poetry projected onto the surface of a pond.