Whose Angels? Enchantments, interpretations, and positions in the cyclical collaboration between art and research

 

Background and justification

Funded by the Kone Foundation and implemented at the University of Helsinki, the Whose Angels? project draws upon the dialogue between the works of scholar of religion Terhi Utriainen and photographic artist Hanne Kiiveri to explore the interpretations and transformations of angel imagery. Approximately 10 years ago, Utriainen studied the multifaceted interest of Finnish women in angels. Kiiveri read Utriainen’s ethnographic research diary ‘Angels on the Desk’ (Enkeleitä työpöydällä) and drew inspiration from it for her photographs, in which contemporary people encounter beings from the invisible world. In Kiiveri’s artistic work, the narrative treatment of the subject matter is combined with a visual atmosphere created with colors, light, and shadow.

The project distills and enriches this dialogue by using research-inspired art as a prompt to produce new research materials for the study of different experiences. At the same time, we will introduce and test a research practice that cyclically combines art and science – something that would not exist without our cooperation.

Why study angel images?

In troubled and uncertain times, various liminal figures or characters often take up space within culture and imagination. One such figure is the angel.

A Google search currently yields more than 1,750,000,000 hits with the search term ‘angel’. This means that the traditional symbol of the angel has a strong presence also in the digital universe, carrying with it processes of cultural memory and imagination that can sometimes be unruly. These processes are, to paraphrase art historian James Elkins, the uncanny and sometimes unsettling borderlands of religion and art.

The angel is a central symbol of many (not only Christian) religious traditions. Despite the transformations it has undergone over the centuries and millennia, the angel has remained somewhat recognisable. Angels are messengers of various liminal states, such as birth, illness or death. They reflect enchantment, comfort and possibilities.

In the visual arts, the angel is one of the most iconic and repeated motifs represented as a winged human figure or, for example, as a light phenomenon. Familiar to most Finns, is the guardian angel whose most widely spread version can be found, for example, on the walls of homes in print or needlework.

The angel is not merely a religious image, since secular culture also demonstrates enduring fascination with angels. According to some researchers, the turn of the millennium and the 2000’s have been a golden age for angels especially in popular culture and religion. Contemporary angels can represent beauty or protection as well as crisis and destruction. The figure of an angel can be seen, for example, tattooed on skin.

Project implementation

Although experiences and interpretations of angels are common, they may have been belittled or considered odd.

We are interested in the breadth of angel imagery interpretations in the context of contemporary Finnish culture and society. At the same time, we create and evaluate a new kind of research practice based on the dialogue between art and research.

In the Whose Angels? project, the photographs of artist Hanne Kiiveri and an exhibition compiled from them, will be offered as prompts to induce interpretations and to stimulate the imagination of different kinds of viewers. By creating and viewing images, people position themselves also in relation to worldviews. Our world, which emphasises visuality, invites us to participate in many kinds of identity negotiations and offers building blocks for the self.

The exhibition will tour the Helsinki metropolitan region, and can also be visited virtually. The researchers will record the interpretations and imaginaries stemming from the reception of the artworks, which will become research material for the project.

According to art historian Hans Belting, the human body is a living medium through which images are processed, received and transmitted. In our project, artist Hanne Kiiveri will also offer members of the public the opportunity to sign up for “angel pictures” that they will design together. (It is only possible to create a limited number of images.) A new and final exhibition will be compiled from these pictures, which will also serve as research material. Finally, a volume on the project containing pictures created by artist as well  as texts by the members of the research group will be published.