Jyrki Parantainen’s Fire series (1994–1999) is a powerful body of work that explores the tension between beauty and fear; a study on the sublime. By using real fire, Parantainen creates emotionally charged scenes that draw the viewer into a state of both enchantment and discomfort. These light boxes, updated with modern technology, have not been exhibited in over 20 years. Fire is a study of interior spaces overtaken by the alien presence of living flames. Though the inhabitants are absent, their presence lingers in the everyday objects — souvenirs, furniture, and utility items — that bear traces of lives once lived. These works are presented as large-scale, self-standing light boxes that illuminate the intensity and fragility of each captured moment.

Milja Laurila’s series Untitled Women originates from her recent discovery of the 1930s book Woman. An Historical Gynæcological and Anthropological Compendium. First published in Germany in 1885, the book became one of the most influential texts in the field of sexual science at the time, presenting female physiology through an anthropological lens. Stripped of their identity and presented in the book as anonymous objects, these bodies are reimagined by Laurila, who alters the photographs’ original purpose to reveal the women from a new perspective.