K. TSCHÄHRÄ

b. 1975, Tampere, Finland 

WORKS   |   BIOGRAPHY   |   EXHIBITIONS  

SELECTED WORKS

BIOGRAPHY

K. Tschährä (born Katja Peltola) has drawn since childhood. She has an MA in art history and spent one year as an exchange student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki where took drawing as a minor subject in her MA studies. Her own style was rather naturalistic and romantic.

For several years, K. Tschährä has been intensively involved with "Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises" (TRE). This is a body-based relaxation technique to release physical tension, stress and trauma via the activation of the body's own tremor mechanism. In July 2020, K. Tschährä tried it out on her friend to see if the trembling would transfer to the other person. This did not happen, but the friend encouraged her to giving her a massage in this way. Her hands began to take on a life of their own on her friend's body, tapping their way through the muscles and releasing pain by pressing on the right places with her fingers.

After this experience, K. Tschährä wondered if she could also draw via TRE. She took paper and pencil and first drew with her eyes closed. The hand began to make shaky, curved movements that still carried a certain logic. Then she drew with open eyes and clear motifs began to appear on the paper.

K. Tschährä felt an inner urge to draw every day. Whenever she drew, she felt better. To her amazement, the motifs and shapes that her hand executes are completely different from what she has drawn in the past. She feels that she is the instrument of forces that come from outside of her and manifest themselves through her.

At first, as if out of chaos, orderly structures emerged, like collections of cells giving rise to biomorphic formations that reflect the morphology of nature as an ornamental form. From this, individual symbolic elements evolved, first and foremost the image of a bear, which are woven into a fascinating flow of lines, arabesques and enigmatic characters.

K. Tschährä lives in her birth home in the beautiful district of Pispala, right by the sacred lake, Pyhäjärvi.

SELECTED EXHBITIONS

2021 Group exhibition Strange Things Among Us, The College of Psychic Studies, London. Jun 5 - Aug 6, 2021 
2020 Exhibition Origin in a group exhibition Keep in Touch, Gallery Himmelblau, Tampere, Finland. Dec 11, 2020 - Jan 17, 2021.