Pyyhkala's work is naturally theatrical and presents passing moments or seemingly insignificant objects as profound symbols, while simultaneously maintaining an essential and striking abstract function. This is often accentuated by linking images in diptych or triptych to create provocative colour, texture or linear relationships in juxtaposition with loaded iconography.

The images seem to emanate directly from the unconscious. An unsettled, windswept tree and the exaggerated angle of a building are the stuff of nightmares. Photographs of dogs coursing across a snowy landscape at night speak of howling obsessions and archetypal fears. A fragile, ghostly figure stepping onto a gangplank leading to the unknown is at once threatening and courageous. These images are silent and chilling in their simple depiction of unrest. In a contrasting, lyrical tone, long elegant hands reach underwater for dark shapes. The delicate Renaissance palette and sense of slow motion gently lull the psyche while tugging at emotive imagery.

The combination of images seemingly captured by chance with subtly staged events is characteristic of Pyyhkala's work and oddly persuasive. It forces a kind of seeing which removes an image from its context and promotes its inherent textural and atmospheric qualities, presenting living itself as a stream of constant stimuli and meanings. There is a fluidity and a connectedness across the works which draws the viewer through a succession of different states of consciousness. A flash of the fresh light of day, of TV neon or darkest night and an array of different focus settings create a feeling of swimming, in successively deeper or shallower waters.

The works embrace the immense experience of living from being in the grip of obsession, to melancholic contemplation, to the clarity of trust and action. The images look out upon the world around from a deeply sensitive, subjective, interior territory and present a personal story of acceptance and engagement with life. The sheet is swept clean - as clean as maybe (a small bloodstain remains) - and the clock is set at midnight between the past and the future.

Lizzy Le Quesne