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VISUAL ARTIST MARJA-LIISA TORNIAINEN
TEXTS / WRITINGS BY OTHERS
Kaisu Antell: A MYTH AND A VIEWING PROCESS OF NON-FIGURATIVE ART IN THE LIGHT OF C. G. JUNG'S THEORY OF ARCHETYPES / EXPERIMENTATATIVE INTERPRETATION OF THE ARTWORKS BY MARJA-LIISA TORNIAINEN (summary of Antell's master's thesis in the University of Turku, Faculty of Humanities, School of Cultural Receach, Department of Comparative Religion 1996)
Seven artworks by Marja-Liisa Torniainen, painter, have been chosen as the subject of this study. The works have been interpreted by seven viewers, who have given their interpretations for my analysis in form of reports. The purpose of the study was to apply the definition of a myth, as it is defined in the Science of Religion, as well as archetypal motifs to these artworks and the given interpretations. These are some archetypal symbols in the interpretations, such as water, trees, forests, mirror, egg, cave, waterfall and plants, that are often essential in the contents of myth and fairy tales, too. Based on the analysis it is conceivable that in the viewing process of non-figurative art there are elements similar to the reactualization of myth. According to Lauri Honko (Honko 1981, 111-113), myth is a story of the fundamental actions of gods resulting in the birth of the world, the nature and the culture. The actuality of the myth belongs to a worldview, which is learned and accepted. Myth functions as an example and a model. Furthermore, the analysis brings forward an idea, referred also in colour psycologigal tests. According to it colours and colour combinations contain elements that, whwn looked at, have a direct effect on viewer's hormonal system, thus giving rise to emotions common to all viewers. Colours, therefore, are archetypal symbols, which derive their effect from the collective subconscious. Colour perception is like the reactualization of myth: something ancient, which has always been part of humanity, now becomes actual. Just as in the reactualization of myth, or in a ritual, one becomes temporary with the events described and experienced in an ancient myth. Even if we do not go all the way to the level of collective subconscious, it is possible to see some elements in the viewing process of art similar to those in the reactualization of myth. As a result, a landscape of a swamp, for example, may remind the viewer of a particular swamp where he or she has been walking. Therefore, at the same time as the image is activated, the events and emotions experienced at that particular swamp are activated as well. Thus a myth acts as a model for experiences. For a viewer, Marja-Liisa Torniainen's colour oriented art, as well as art general, can become a scene for fairytales and myths. The viewing of art can resemble a new year's ritual, in which time and world order are created all over again. The hidden darkness in human mind is called out and released, which leads to liberation and spiritual regeneration. In front of an artwork one is placed face with oneself. In some way the viewer must take a stand in what he or she sees and, at the same time, whwt he or she feels. Some kind of emotional reaction is always there. Archetypal symbols, such as colour, water, forests and meadows, clearly present in the artworks under interpretation, speak to us fron deeper level and can affect us more profoundly than a sermon. A visit to an art gallery may go through a chance in his or her consciousness - a change from an every-day experience to experiencing some significant. Accordind to Mircea Eliade sacred time interrupts the course of profane time and the nature of time is thus changed. Eliade writes: "The imitation of an archetypal model is a reactualization of the mythical moment when the archetype was revealed for the first time. Consequently, these ceremonies too, which are neither periodical nor collective, suspend the flow of profane time, of duration, and project the celebrant into a mythical time, in illo tempore. It can be seen that all rituals imitate a divine archetype and that their continual reactualization takes place in one and the same atemporal mythical instant." (Eliade 1959, p. 76) The structure of myths and rites remains unchanged, even if the experiences caused by them were profane. Translation:Anne Paldanius 2006 (Eliade, Mircea: The Myth of the Eternal Return: or, Cosmos and History, New York 1959, translated into English by Willard R. Trask)
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web-design: Marja-Liisa Torniainen 2007 - Photos: Jouko Järvinen, Marja-Liisa Torniainen and Creastock