West coast glory

Martta Penttinen’s BA graduate collection West coast glory captures her hometown Turku, through the lens of documentary filmmaking by transforming garments into cinematic memories.

By drawing visual motifs from the cornerstones of French documentary history, such as cinéma vérité, Penttinen’s collection presents a line-up that acts as an evolving personal documentary, like an Agnès Varda film. Each look becomes a scene unfolding near the Aurajoki riverside, the symbolic spine of the city. Instead of a linear narrative, the collection embraces observation, fleeting memory, and subjective emotion.

– I imagine the Aura River as the heart of the city – a central place where people come to be perceived. By revisiting my own footage of places that hold personal significance, I began to understand the visual rhythm of my hometown — a process that shaped the ironic tone of this collection, Penttinen explains.

Humour plays a defining role in Penttinen’s work. Tackling themes of class and wealth, the collection delves into Turku’s unofficial reputation as a city of generational affluence, referenced in golden accessories and elegant materials. Elements of luxury are playfully distorted, including the Turku coat of arms silk robe looks like a hyperlocal take on prosperity. A personal documentary unfolds through the garments, featuring digital prints of Penttinen’s film stills, embroideries, and materials locally sourced from Turku.

West coast glory reflects on the emotional landscape of a city— the anonymity, the intimacy, and the personal mythology that emerges when gaining distance and perspective from the place where one grew up. West coast glory is a city as a collection, where garments become fragments of a remembered urban reality.

Martta Penttinen
martta.penttinen@aalto.fi
+358 40 689 4442
@maraz0_0