Kati Immonen

In her 1998 watercolour suite Family Album ("Perhealbumista"), Kati Immonen traces her private life and the conventions and traditions within her closest family. A child is seen blowing out a candle on a birthday cake, another plays with a toboggan. A baby is bathed and Father Christmas stands waiting by the Christmas tree. In a series of some thirty watercolours Immonen has paraphrased black and white family photos in which everyday life and celebration have been preserved as indelible memories. In Immonen’s work, however, these memories are presented in pale pastel monochrome. The artist exploits the transparent qualities of watercolour to give each scene its own special nuance: pale pink, blue and green for instance. The past returns in rainbow colours.