| Kaisa Leka | |
|---|---|
Kaisa Leka in 2011 |
|
| Birth name | Kaisa Maria Leka |
| Born | October 25, 1978 Lahti, Southern Finland |
| Nationality | Finnish |
| Field | comic artist and graphic designer |
| Training | bachelor of arts, Lahti University of Applied Sciences. |
| Works |
I am not these feet (2003), Your name is Krishangi (2004) |
| Website | Kaisa Leka |
Kaisa Maria Leka (born October 25, 1978) is a Finnish comic artist and politician from Porvoo. Central themes in Leka's autobiographical comics are disability, politics and spiritual searching. Her comics figures are naïvistically simple animals, the most important of which is a mouse, representing Kaisa herself.
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Kaisa Maria Leka was born on October 25, 1978 in Lahti, Southern Finland. She lived there until the age of 18, when she moved to Porvoo, a small town on the coast. Leka lived in Porvoo since, and enjoies walks in the scenic 16th century old town and quiet evenings at home, cooking vegetarian food with my husband and friends. Most of the time she can found sitting in the park and eating ice cream whenever it's warm enough and most people recognize Leka by her prosthetic feet, as she is a double below knee amputee.[1]
In 2002, both of Kaisa Leka's legs had to be amputated below the knees, due to a severe malformation. After receiving her prosthesis and learning to walk again, Leka was done three big bike trips with her husband, they have cycled to the Arctic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and around Iceland. Leka states, "With my old bones would these trips never have happened, and I want everyone to see my prosthesis because I feel they are nothing to be ashamed of!"[2]
Kaisa Leka has studied arts, graphic design and comics in the Arts and Crafts college of Porvoo and Lahti Polytechninc. For the last five years Leka has combined working and studying, getting new sources of inspiration at school and practical skills at work.
Leka is a fairly typical snippet workers on Culture: she holds series of workshops, cartoons and illustrations for several magazines, doing my own comic books, and also graphic design, primarily newspaper format. For my education, I am medianom, I have to study graphic design and cartooning in Lahti Muotoiluinstituutti and Porvoo Crafts and industrial school[2]
Leka became really interested in politics in 2004 when she was asked by the Porvoo Green to stand in municipal elections. Leka have been with the City Council since 2005 and is a deputy member of the council board. She is deputy chairman of the Green League of Porvoo and the Youth and Student Organisation of the Green League of Porvoo, and a candidate of the Green League in the 2007 Finnish parliament elections in the constituency of Uusimaa. As a politician, Leka has spoken in favour of culture and health care.[2]
Leka is a member of the Sri Caitanya Sangha movement, which is part of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, like the Hare Krishna community. Leka's religious interests raised some attention during a tour in France in autumn 2006, because their religion has been separated from state and Hare Krishna defined as a community to be followed.
Kaisa Leka, works with graphic design as well as comics, mostly layout. Most recently Leka had completed the layout for a vegetarian cookbook put together by the Green party's presidential candidate for the 2006 election. Leka has also written a small book about India published by the Helsinki City Art Museum. Along with complete persional works Leka, has worked for several magazines and done different smaller projects for a variety of clients. Leka also regularly teaches comics courses and workshops in many different schools.
Leka has published several autobiographical comic books, the largest being the 60-page I am not these feet from 2003, a diary about learning to walk again after her amputations. In 2004 Leka published Your name is Krishangi, a travel diary from our honeymoon that took an unexpected turn when we went to visit a Hindu monastic in the California redwoods. A small comic in two parts named Two stories was published in 2005, and describes a week she spent home alone while her husband was in Ukraine - from both Leka's husbands point of view and Leka's point of view.
Leka's comics have also been published in several Finnish magazines, daily newspapers as well as weekly and monthly magazines. The themes are the same even though the format varies: spirituality, disability and politics. Leka's comics have been included in several group exhibitions in Finland, and also at the book fair in Moscow, Russia.
In 2004 as part of her graduate studies at Kemi-Tornio polytechnic she worked on a short 26min documentary film entitled Koko nainen - Whole woman It was awarded best student documentary film in one of the biggest short film festivals in Finland. Koko nainen - Whole woman is a documentary portrait about Kaisa Leka herself, who openly discusses her relationship to her body and the meaning of corporality. After a childhood disrupted by agonising medical procedures, Kaisa had both legs amputated beneath the knee. Now she only wears skirts, drawing attention to the artificial legs that are her statement of identity. She doesn’t want to hide her disability but rather show it with pride. How is it to be a disabled woman in a society obsessed with appearances?[3]
| Title | Produced by | Directed by | Format | Length | Year | Country | Awards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Koko nainen (Whole Woman) | Marika Väisänen | Marika Väisänen | 24 min | 2004 | Finland | 2005 Hannover Film Festival - Best Student Documentary |