Expose

Jussi Niva’s (b. 1966, Pello) Expose combines photography with painting. The sprays of light in the panels are derived from digitally processed photographs. The work was made by spray painting transparent acrylic glass using a computerised system.

Transforming light into images, Niva’s Expose is a study of light and refraction. The random gradations of colour represent the refraction of colours in the spectrum. The title is, on the one hand, a reference to exposure in photography and, on the other, to the moment of being revealed or becoming vulnerable.

Consisting of several parts, the work is installed among the roof trusses of the metro station. The net-like structure of the bright, open space and its glass roof lets external light and sound into the station. Natural light is both reflected from the curving surfaces of the panels and penetrates their translucent material.

The total length of the work is 84 metres. The artist has taken into consideration the fact that passengers only spend a few minutes at the station and can only view parts of the work at any one time. As they return to the station again and again, the passengers can view new sections of the work.

Jussi Niva won the invitational competition for an artwork for the Vuosaari metro station in 1996. The work was produced under the Percent for Art programme, and it belongs to the City of Helsinki’s art collection, which is managed and curated by HAM.