Henrik Tikkanen's Helsinki

Henrik Tikkanen produced a huge number of city and travel reports, parables and aphorisms, first for Hufvudstadsbladet and later for Helsingin Sanomat. Although Tikkanen wrote passionately about his travels abroad as well as about the archipelago, he was characteristically Helsinki-based. He drew thousands of pictures of the capital for magazines and books.

Tikkanen was particularly fond of depicting the city centre with its ornate houses. Although much was preserved, Helsinki in the 1960s and 70s was a time of constant change. Tikkanen's recordings emphasised a temporal perspective. His line was both precise and sensitive. The naturalistic style often seemed to capture the soul of the house, as if it were a human being.

Curated by journalist-writer Ville Hänninen and graphic artist Ville Tietäväinen, the exhibition returns a temporal perspective to Henrik Tikkanen's images. The delicacy of the drawings from fifty years ago is juxtaposed with the harsh riot of time in photographs taken by Vesa Lehtimäki of exactly the same places. What has changed in the illustrations, what is exactly the same (or looks the same)? What is photographic representation like, and what is illustration like? How has urban design evolved in the last fifty years?

Read more here.