Unni Toivola
We love Unni’s raw, expressive and explosive expressions. Her manners feels bold and pleasantly fragmented with overlapping patched patterns and motifs.
We discovered artist Unni Toivola (b. 1991) and her amazing work through the urban art project #ArtMadeThis where we had the opportunity to select one of the contributing artists and make a poster collection for Fine Little Day. Toivola works and lives in Gothenburg where she took her Bachelor Degree in Design at HDK School of Design and Crafts in 2016.
Toivola's artistry has its foundation in painting, but has explored and branched into textiles and sculpture as well, where her unique expression is recognizable cross media. Toivola's artistic approach is best described as process-based, where the process and curiosity drives her forward and which significantly appears in her end-results – where repetition and disassembling of artworks lead to new motives.
For Fine Little Day, Unni Toivola has made motifs applied on posters and textiles.
Q: Your working method, do you work with sketches or just intuitively?
A: It’s mostly sketches actually. I usually sketch small pieces at a time, much like the drawing game Exquisite corpse. I draw, fold the paper, draw again, fold it away, sketch a new piece and so on. So I don’t see the whole picture until later when I unfold it. And then it might be good, or not good at all. It feels boring to over think things. I often repeat the same motif several times just to feel the difference in the result, between the woven and the painted, even though it is the same motif.
Q: What about materials, do you prefer to work with something particular?
A: I have no medium I prefer to work with, usually I just want it to go fast. I am too impatient and don’t want to get stuck over-think things. Of course, ceramics and weaving can both seem to be mediums that takes a long time, but I work quickly in both. Partly because I have chosen not to learn exactly how to be technically good at them. Then I would feel like I have to work too carefully and the feeling is lost for me.
Q: Your work often give a tactile impression, is that part important?
A: Before when I worked as a graphic designer I became restless and bored to sit in front of the computer and not be able to physically feel what I’m doing. I like the sense of being able to touch the material, to see and feel the end result, like in this oil pastel drawing (referring to Conversion Poster).
Q: What’s your favorite thing about the time you spend creating?
A: When time kind of disappears. I only have two things that make the time go without me noticing, when I’m in a flow creating in my studio or when I’m at home laying puzzles. That’s one of my favorite things about creating, entering a zone when time just disappears and then head back to reality and view what came out of it.
Q: Do you have an occupation other than art?
A: Yes, I have a 9–5 job at a large cemetery in Gothenburg. I have a need to do physical stuff to process mentally, like for example doing the dishes. Activities when my body runs on autopilot is when I get a lot of ideas, and that’s one thing that I like with my job at the cemetery because most of the work tasks are just you using your body. Understanding now that this kind of relates to the earlier question. That my 9–5 job is just me mentally processing and then later on in the studio I’m just working and realizing my ideas that I’ve got during the day.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish with your career over the next few years?
A: One thing I would like to do in the future is to create something really big. Like a sculpture placed outside somewhere. And I would also love to paint some more murals! So maybe a really large piece somewhere. I already have a license to operate a sky lift so that part is all taken care of if a big wall happens to appear.
Unni Toivola
