Venla Kokkola

VenIa Kokkola’s BA thesis, I found a pepperoncini on the ground and it tasted good examines momentariness and immersion in the present moment, a state of being without a body, sensing existence through moments. It’s a work that leaves room for wonder. The collection explores how everyday things begin to “glimmer” when observed closely, and how these moments only last briefly before disappearing. Through vibrant colours and prints based on and inspired by Venla’s own photographs, garments and objects are brought to presence through a sense of being alive. “My ideas arrive more like flashes than constructed thoughts. I live intensely in imagined moods and visual fragments, and making becomes a way of chasing and translating those inner worlds into something visible. Sometimes a tiny detail in my surroundings suddenly reveals itself to me, almost as if it lights up. An abandoned Twix wrapper in sunlight can become emotionally overwhelming, something I feel I need to hold onto before the moment disappears.” Venla’s world combines elements of imitation of real-life objects and references. The collection has a mood that is simultaneously personal and universal: you can step into it whenever you want. The materials such as plastic and synthetic yarns create space for questioning what is real and what feels real. Mixing up mundane shapes with big volumes and bold colors was important to showcase the multidimensionality that comes within the created world. It is full of surprises that you can find along the way. “It is like the sky above; now it is a bright spring day. The birds are silent, but the trees smell alive, and even though the day was completely ordinary, I notice a shimmering Twix wrapper, golden, floating in bright turquoise. I step on it and over it, because my phone has run out of space. Maybe fifteen photos of the same spot are enough [...] because I don’t want to forget. Will I not forget?”