Heli Vehkaperä
Last Chance
3–29 November 2026
– Huuto’s first exhibitions in Itämerentalo, beside Cabel Factory,
Tammasaarenlaituri 3 (weekdays 12-4pm) / Tallberginkatu 2A
I left the keys on the table and a shelf full of books I had loved the way books are loved, literally and by holding them in one’s hands. The room commented on every movement I made, and I became more cautious. I did not want the room to think about me. I did not understand the house, the arrangement of its rooms, the locked cupboards or the pictures on the walls. Everything had once been tested. Over there, I laughed and he looked into my mouth. I laughed more and we moved on to another black spot. I did not want to remember, neither in detail nor vaguely. When the door closed, I was still inside. I moved silently through every room, wiping my hair on everything that had accumulated there. My hair began to weigh me down. Soon it was a gray, rough cloud, and moving between the rooms became history. Days followed. I had moved. I sat in my armchair. The armchair knew that it was an armchair. It was silent, gentle and familiar. I sat and thought on its belly. In my mind, I drew a strategy for forgetting, like a hungry architect. Small patterns, twists and details. Details are important; they can reveal everything in their simplicity. I thought of you like the ending of a fairy tale. Drool was running from the corner of my mouth, I wiped it with the side of my hand and took a nap. In the dream, a woman was pregnant, with light surrounding her face, and she smiled gently. She belonged to the landscape in the wilderness. I woke up and started cooking.
We had once met. I traveled to look at you. There was no color in your eyes; they were openings into the emptiness where I created a world. I began with the trees, naming the plants and the children. I hung curtains in the window and left the kitchen tap running. I gave an echo to the little footsteps in the hallway, described every object in detail, specifying their properties and purpose. I arranged the books on the shelf in an illogical order, learning the contents of each one by heart. I made the couch especially inviting and put the table in the leading role. I left the onion in a key position.
I opened the moving boxes. Inside of them, I found tissue paper, meters and meters of crumpled, airy, delicate tissue paper. All the objects that had been packed were gone. The strategy of forgetting is based on deception, imagining that one is doing something in this time and place, while actually doing everything somewhere else. I am a master at that. I closed the boxes again and looked out the window at the empty landscape. (From my diary, 2015)
Heli Vehkaperä (b. 1976, Raahe) holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Academy of Fine Arts and a Master of Arts degree in Art Education from Aalto University’s School of Art and Design. Since graduating in 2002, she has worked with painting and with collages made of paper and fabric. “Last Chance”, her exhibition at Galleria Huuto, comprises works created over the past twenty years. The exhibition serves as a deliberate farewell to the art world.
“I no longer have the heart to create art. My mind, passion, and dedication lie elsewhere. I also want to simplify my life.” Heli Vehkaperä
Thank you
The exhibition has not been supported
Contact details
heli.marina.vehkapera(a)gmail.com
