Terhi Hakola

As a medical practitioner Terhi Hakola has witnessed life at the ordinary and at the extremes – of death, pain and fear; of hope and birth. These fundamental human experiences – and the desire to unfold what defines and gives meaning to our day-to-day existence – also fuels and motivates her art.

Using primal symbols, traditional story-telling and Scandinavian mythology, Hakola works with video, installation, textile and painting. Her work in recent years has moved from exploration of home, to grief for the loss of home, of both human and non-human beings. She plays with the tensions between the mundane and the extraordinary, the familiar and the terrifying; here impermanence and perpetual change play as central questions. Her melancholic, emotionally engaging work creates a questioning and shifting landscape. For Hakola, the creative process – going through the unknown and doubt – is an important rite of passage, which mirrors the whole of life’s experience with its potential for transformation. Her central quest is to develop work which reflects the shared human experience and creates a place for connection and possibility.

Terhi Hakola is a Finland-born artist based in Sydney. She completed Master of Fine Art studies at National Art School, Sydney, holds a Master of Art from UNSW Art and Design and a degree in medicine from the University of Kuopio, Finland. She has practiced as a GP for 20 years in Finland and Australia and exhibited regularly in the last 10 years in solo and group shows.