Your cart is empty

    Shop now
    VERY CORE 1 | DER GREIF
    VERY CORE 1
    VERY CORE 2 | DER GREIF
    VERY CORE 2
    VERY CORE 3 | DER GREIF
    VERY CORE 3
    VERY CORE 4 | DER GREIF
    VERY CORE 4
    VERY CORE 5 | DER GREIF
    VERY CORE 5
    VERY CORE 6 | DER GREIF
    VERY CORE 6
    VERY CORE 7 | DER GREIF
    VERY CORE 7
    VERY CORE 8 | DER GREIF
    VERY CORE 8
    VERY CORE 9 | DER GREIF
    VERY CORE 9
    VERY CORE 10 | DER GREIF
    VERY CORE 10
    VERY CORE Making Of | DER GREIF
    VERY CORE Making Of
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF

    VERY CORE

    Artist Blog by Hertta Kiiski

    VERY CORE was an art installation at the Hippolyte Gallery in Helsinki, where a large photographic portrait framed in sky-blue, a 1970 Californian psychedelic poster and chair-like beings greeted visitors. VERY CORE draws inspiration from “The Ambassadors” (1533) by Hans Holbein the Younger, a painting that has long captivated me for its meditation on knowledge, mortality, and the elusive nature of time. When I encountered this monumental work in London, its symbolic depth, particularly the famous anamorphic skull, revealed how reality is far more complex than we often realize. The painting invites us to slow down and engage deeply with existence's mysteries. Though the ultimate nature of reality may remain elusive, this engagement allows us to grasp its depth.

    In my reinterpretation, my daughters take on the roles of the ambassadors, echoing Holbein’s figures 490 years later. However, instead of representing wealth and power, I sought to shift the focus to something more valuable today: youth. The exhibition continues with a 1970s Californian psychedelic poster, featuring the phrase, “This is the first day of the rest of your life.” Time here is not linear, but a fluid force brimming with potential for transformation and renewal. This offers a counterpoint to the memento mori in Holbein’s painting, suggesting that time is not solely a reminder of our mortality but also a continuous, participatory process.

    This fluidity of time is echoed in the installation itself. The gallery space feels in constant transition - caught between what has passed and what is yet to come. The arrangement of photographs and objects evokes impermanence, where the present is always on the verge of slipping into the past. The gallery becomes a sanctuary, a space where presence is heightened and time slows down. Artificial green lights, programmed to shift throughout the day, cast a surreal glow, while furry chairs invite visitors to pause, breathe, and absorb the atmosphere. This tension between being and becoming invites the viewer to engage with the spaces between moments - those liminal spaces between birth and death, love and oblivion.

    Hertta Kiiski is part of Issue 17 by Guest Editor Torbjørn Rødland.

    Check out her Artist Feature Plasticenta.

    DER GREIF
    Hertta Kiiski

    Hertta Kiiski is a multidisciplinary visual artist whose work unfolds within a framework of love, embracing the magical, mythical, and esoteric. While she weaves fabulous realities, much of her work emerges from the everyday domestic sphere in collaboration with her daughters, dogs, and other animals. Kiiski´s photographs, videos and installations have been shown internationally in solo and group exhibitions across museums, galleries, and festivals. Kiiski has also published three photobooks, the most recent being *Otherworld* (2023), released by Kehrer Verlag.