Laurila’s work is based on a 1930’s fact book titled “Woman. An Historical Gynæcological and Anthropological Compendium”.
An influential text in sexual science of its time, it is illustrated with hundreds of photographs of naked women and children from all over the world.
The work is a play between word and image, fact and fiction, past and present. It provokes questions regarding colonialist practices, research ethics, the role of women in science and photography’s relation to words.
How do we look at others? How do we see the world?
About the Artist
Milja Laurila (b. 1982 in Helsinki, Finland) graduated with an MA in Photography from the Aalto University in Helsinki in 2010.
Throughout her career, she has used old photographs as material for her works. Early on Laurila utilized pictures from her own childhood family album, and later focused on images found in old encyclopedias and medical books. She is particularly interested in the relationship between words and photographs and in the recontextualisation of archival images.
Her latest exhibitions include: Purdy Hicks Gallery (London, 2017), Shoot Gallery (Oslo, 2017), Gallery Taik Persons (Berlin, 2016), Paris Photo (Paris, 2016), Museum of Contemporary Art MOCAK (Krakow, 2016) and Photo London (London, 2016). Her works are included in numerous museum and public collections in Europe and USA.
IN OTHER IMAGE, WHEN WORDS FAIL
International Portfolio Showcase
National Library Plaza
05 Oct—30 Oct
Free admission
