Sandra Kantanen

Viewing Room

Wednesday, 02 April 2025

Sandra Kantanen

Untitled (Mountain 4), 2009

Pigment print

82 x 70 cm

Sandra Kantanen has immersed herself in the world of landscape photography for the past two decades. Drawing inspiration from Chinese landscape painting and its unique perspective on nature, she creates idealized, surreal sceneries that can best be described as "mindscapes.” Upon discovering that many of the sacred mountains depicted in traditional Chinese paintings had been devastated by pollution and tourism, she embarked on an aesthetic journey to challenge the notion of what a culture believes to be ideal. Her photographs, characterized by soft, diffused light, capture landscapes marked by environmental change.

Blending photography with digital techniques, Kantanen masterfully balances meticulously crafted chaos—interweaving colors, distortions, blurs, and brushstrokes. By stretching pixels to resemble paint, she introduces brushstrokes that contrast with the underlying images, resulting in new, dreamlike sceneries. Rather than seeking out an existing place, she creates her own, transforming natural landscapes into idyllic, color-infused scenes where viewers can no longer distinguish between what is real and what is created by the artist.