10 Questions with Mira Mink

Mira Mink is a poet and artist from Helsinki. Mink's ideas come from writing and thinking of writing. "Making art is important right now. I am also a writer, so my art can tell a lot of writing work." Mink's latest art project is an art book called Collection of Photopoetry, written in English and Italian. The book is illustrated with 69 textual images. And Mink has translated her poetry of three previous books.

@minkmira

INTERVIEW

First of all, introduce yourself to our readers. Who are you, and how did you start experimenting with art?

Mira Mink is an artist and poet from Helsinki. Mink wrote her own poetry while studying at the University of Helsinki. Mink filmed a lot for several years and used the iPhone technique. This artwork is done when Mink is moving and going by public transport in her everyday life.

You work with poetry and visual art. How would you define yourself as an artist?

Mink always aims towards new challenges that keep you going and doing things. For example, arranging events or hanging up an exhibition is part of her artwork style. Or create a new book project and look for people with whom to co-work and do more art projects.

With you, photo, 20x30 cm, 2022 © Mira Mink

Before turning to art, you studied marketing and Italian philology. What inspired you to pursue a career in art?

Mink does art and thinks about it all the time. Art helps her through difficult times, and sometimes it is necessary to change career plans if there’s no work. Poetry is quite popular, but it is not enough if you want to continue and get more professional skills in the field of art.

Can you tell us about the process of creating your work? What is your artistic routine when working?

Mink films, writes, draws, and paints her ideas. She produces events and takes part in several projects at the same time. It is very independent work.

In your work, you mix images and poetry. How did you evolve this style?

As she described before, the style was created when she published her two first self-publishing works. It needed some other art to develop on the side. The way you look at and analyze images is an individual but a universal thing.

Fighting benzos, photo, 20x30 cm, 2022 © Mira Mink

How do you choose the images to work with? And how do you pair them with poetry?

Mink usually has a strong intuition, and she follows that path. She chooses simply first text and then pairs it with images. Of course, she already knows what the style or purpose is approximate. Images are taken in nature and the city; they depict streets, landscapes, and flowers, urban vs. nature.

What do you hope that the public takes away from your work? And what messages would you like to convey?

She hopes that it has an impact and promotes important values in places that are public. She has had several exhibitions in the libraries. Her message is that art is for everybody and learning is important.