Janika Herlevi, From the Factory

The exhibition features a selection of works I have created over the past two years, focusing on women and work. The body of work has been created using various printmaking techniques such as 4-colour photopolymer gravures and planographic- and intaglio prints with chine collé.  

The starting point for the exhibition was my mother and her work history at the ABB electronics factory in Vaasa (formerly Strömberg), in departments where the majority of employees are women. I collected archival material: photographs, old Strömberg magazines from flea markets, pictures from family albums, and archive photographs of women in factories from the Central Archives for Finnish Business Records. The aim has been to use documentary elements as a starting point for intuitive work, not to create a documentary. The working process follows its own rules, and the rational starting point may change shape along the way. Factory work became a symbol of all the invisible work that is done in life, behind the big moments and milestones. The factory also serves as a metaphor for the structures in which girls and women grow up and live. While using old super8 analog film from my parents’ wedding as material in my work, I reflect on my own life choices and their consequences.

My perspective is on women, their experiences, and their bodies—soft bodies in hard structures.