Sami Lukkarinen has created pixel art since the early 2000s, during which time he has played with different styles. His earliest architectural themes linked the pop aesthetics identified with Roy Lichtenstein (1923–1997) with fine examples of contemporary architecture into cohesive works of art. After this phase the artist began seeking material for his work from amateur photo galleries on the internet. The resulting art was exhibited in 2005 and 2007. Now in 2010 Lukkarinen’s art increasingly resembles mosaics with more material substance than before. In traditional art terms his paintings are now more picturesque. The evolution of internet photo galleries can be seen also in the artist’s own production as he fulfils in his own unique way the idea popularised by the Realists in the 19th century regarding the importance of being true to one’s times.

The artist makes visible the change that seems to express how the internet has transformed the world. The illustrative nature of the world, different visual styles and the search for them seem to have become closer and more complex. Immersing oneself in the information network one soon realises how esoteric knowledge that was once hard to find has become perhaps easier to access. Discovering alternative traditions can be simple by browsing highly specialised websites, whether the subject matter is occultism or German amateur rubber porn. Everything can be found for everyone – or at least it seems like it. Does this mean that our image culture is being democratised, or is the vanguard of artistic expression being finally absorbed into the nonexistence of low-quality digital images? Lukkarinen has pondered this dilemma by studying thousands upon thousands of websites filled with all kinds of amateur images. However, he does not offer any easy answers, preferring instead to show how anything expressive can be interesting.

From the differentiation of the elite to differentiating together

Whereas Jean des Esseintes, the principle character of J-K Huysmans’ (1848–1907) novel “Against the Grain”, was able to realise his decadent and extreme tastes by paying a lot for his pleasures, and the first encyclopaedic novels of Umberto Eco (1932) were based on breathtaking erudition and a massive collection of books, these days anyone with access to an online search engine can accumulate impressive knowledge about any subject without ever leaving home. Although it has become almost a banal subject, and its long-term implications remain hard to identify as the transformation is still taking place, the change has been considerable. Numerous interpretations have been offered: for some it is a question of the end of the world and for others a corruption of manners, yet for still others the internet presents the possibility to significantly enhance the wellbeing of mankind. From a moral point of view, Lukkarinen also adheres to another idea that arose in the 19th century: he does not equip his art with unambiguous ethical demands or instructions, but rather he lets viewers decide for themselves how to relate to the world and morals of the images found on the internet. At the same time he has modified the original images radically by enlarging them into paintings. A new aspect that is apparent in the works presented in this exhibition is that the layers of paint are thicker, and in places the white of the canvas can be seen beneath the individual “pixels”.

Lukkarinen’s study of online images exemplifies also a third trait that connects the work of this 21st-century artist to the experiences of the 19th-century Realists. Lukkarinen is fascinated by the relationship between photography and painting and how they are interpreted as relating to reality. The forms of internet images vary often, and the popularity of different types of images spreads with a different logic to that of paintings. Unlike Georg Baselitz (1938), who paints his works upside-down, an internet photographer simply rotates the image. Although the relationship between photography and painting has stimulated debate since the 1840s, it continues to do so to this day. The relationship between photography and painting became more equal with the development of postmodernism. Sometimes we hear it said that photography has become the new painting, and vice versa. The logic of both statements adheres to the view that the visual disciplines are spreading into each other’s territory. Fashion blends in with the fine arts, and the artist in turn appears as a visual designer. Although Lukkarinen’s paintings can be connected with this design-art hypothesis, the traditional oil painting techniques that he employs – complete with varnishing – and the intricate process involved in creating the mosaic appearance of his art seem to speak more about the values of classical art than of fashionable visual fun.

Communities of individuals

The ease of internet images poses a two-fold question: are they a lasting commodity or are they disposable? Lukkarinen has identified differences among online communities, as the images posted by more youthful groups vary all the time, whereas in more mature communities the images – including user images – have a greater sense of permanence. Lukkarinen’s art also raises the question of whether his paintings are more lasting than the models on which they are based? Will the internet store everything, or will the painting last longer? The artist himself does not attempt to answer this question, serving rather as a philosopher who categorises the phenomena of the world. Neither does he inform us about the conclusions of his research in advance, allowing instead the viewer to discover the voyeuristic pleasure that is created in its original environmental when an ordinary image is transferred to a new context. The pixel is like a Dadaist objet trouvé, a discovered object that includes itself in the overall work of art. In Lukkarinen’s case it has to be noted that the discovered image undergoes a major transformation and in fact lends only its subject to the artist. Yet how different by nature are Lukkarinen’s works of art to the portraits that fight for attention on the internet?

If one ponders the connections between Lukkarinen’s art and anonymous internet images, one soon realises that both involve the style of being and creating an identity. Internet images work within their contexts as expressions of both individual and group identity. Works of art in turn can be considered as objects of identity formation that have a self – or rather several. Lukkarinen’s paintings do not evoke uniform emotions or the same reactions in all viewers but instead seem to have a human appeal, receiving their meaning in relation to another individual. This can be both a real or fictive being.

Central to both works of art and internet images is how they act as methods of introspection and creation. The image on a user profile is the subject speaking about himself, or perhaps rather subjective speech. By comparison, a work of art can have multiple identities that are nevertheless all tied to the same work of art. A famous example is the short novel “Turn of the Screw” by Henry James (1843–1916), about which countless and completely contrasting interpretations have been made. Regardless, all the interpretations involve the same piece of literature. Although Lukkarinen’s art does not create quite the same degree of perplexity, the similar structures in all his paintings create the impression of a hall of mirrors in which repeating and non-repeating elements alternate, drawing the viewer’s attention to smaller and smaller details. For ultimately it comes down to pixels.