The View From the Front Seat

Annu Kilpeläinen’s art is a psychedelic joyride of colour, pattern, and uninhibited fun. While the natural world frequently features in her work, it's her car illustrations that particularly catch the eye. Flaunting a maximalist and saturated style, her automobiles are patchworked with twinkling stars and pulsating hearts, Hot Wheels-esque flames and sixties-style flower power blooms. “I started drawing cars as a fun testing ground for pattern and colour combinations, but they grew into more,” Annu tells Wrap, “I see a lot of symbolism in cars; the feeling of being on the road, in-between places, watching the changing landscape…it’s a feeling of freedom.”

Originally from Finland, Annu has lived in London for over a decade. Most days she works from the studio she shares with a couple of artist friends. “Studio days can be a hectic mix of emails, sketching, planning and chatting with the girls,” she says, “Or it can be a chilled day of uninterrupted drawing.” Most of Annu’s work is hand-drawn, carefully inked in acrylic pens, but her recent foray into digital animation adds movement to her designs, suggestive of the change and momentum that she feels her cars represent.

For Annu, a road trip holds potential; the excitement of not quite knowing what’s going to happen, the possibility of something unexpected, a new story to tell. This is how she wants her illustrations to feel as well, which particularly comes across in her published zines; Rally (2014), Rally 2U (2019) and Carchive (2021). “I wanted to explore creating loose narrative structures and zines felt like the perfect platform for this,” Annu explains. “Both Rally zines (published by Caboose) are a collection of images tied together to form a story. It’s like showing screenshots of random points in a film but letting you fill in the rest of the storyline in your own head.”

Annu’s latest creative endeavour is particularly impressive; stained-glass sculptures made from individual pieces of coloured glass carefully soldered together. Visiting home in Finland just before the 2020 pandemic lockdowns, Annu was inspired by her mother, who had herself been working with stained glass for some years. Experimenting with her mum’s specialised equipment, Annu finished her first piece Cinderella, a glitzy high heel pieced together from segments of glass in hues that look good enough to eat. Her most recent work, Highway Star, is a 3D glass car, made from over 100 individual pieces of glass, painstakingly painted and joined together. “I enjoy how lengthy and labour-heavy the whole process is,” Annu explains. “There is an unpredictability in glass and solder and how it all works together…or doesn't!” Thinking of the future, more glass sculptures are high on Annu’s list. “I love working with stained glass and will definitely continue exploring it. I’d love to make some larger-scale glass works.”

However, she continues to feel the pull of a road trip. “I hope I can travel more again after the last few years we’ve had. Working on the road is really fun; having office hours at cafes and taking over a table here and there for drawing” she says. “I would love to go on a month-long trip, seeing new things, working, and meeting new people.” We can't wait to see where Annu ends up next.

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@annukilpelainen