VISUAL ARTISTS
Article by Pia Parkkinen, Yle (Yleisradio, Finnish Broadcasting Company)
Photographs: Ville Mäkilä / Turun museokeskus
ROBOHEMIANS 2022
is a playful artwork that features three robots getting wasted at a bar. Two of them talk shit to each other, and the third one recites poetry.
Robotized sculptures, mixed media; Open source;
Veke & Tortsua eyemechamisms and Tortsua mouth mechanism: open source 3Dprinting & engineering Nilheim mechatronics/Will Cogley,
Script and realization of robot voice (Marina): Marina de Ita
Script and realization of robots voice (Veke & Tortsua): Samuli Pörhölä
Programming Jaakko Niska
Photograph: Maija Tammi
EXUVIA 2022
Materials: raku ceramic, tiffany glass, blown and casted glass and steel
Comission to Central Hospital of Vaasa, Finland
The subject of the work Exuvia is a biological event: when a damselfly has climbed out from its exuvia and has set its wings to dry on wind. The species represented by the sculpture is the Common Bluet, whose habitat is sea and lake bays.
Sculpture's radical change of scale emphasis the importance of small local species. It contains a lot of detailed handicraft which brings the monumental size back again to scale of humans finger.
The transformation represented in the Exuvia contains strong symbolism of empowerment and resilience. It's also one of the tiny miracles happening around our everyday life.
Photograph: Ilari Tapio
Photograph: Mimosa Pale
JYRKI KANGS MEMORIAL, BASS STRING WINGS 2022, PORI, FINLAND
Materials: Stainless steel, concrete, stainless steel wire.
Size: Width 12meters, Height 6meters.
Interactive monument. The railings on the upper level have bass strings that can be played.
The monument was commissioned by the city of Pori to honor Jyrki Kangas, a versatile influencer in cultural life, who was one of the founders of Pori Jazz and worked as the artistic director of the festival for a long time.
Monument is inspired of Jyrki Kangas being a great visionary and his way of fly in his ideas as well as the state of flow created in jazz musicians' jams. The wings and the sound world they produce refer to Jyrki’s own instrument, the double bass.
Photograph: Pirje Mykkänen
Photograph: Juha Åman
NATURE MORTE 2017
Material: surgical instruments, wood, acrylic glass, electronics, flowers.
Nature Morte is a multi-dimensional kinetic installation that lives betwixt and between the tensions of contemporary life and its uncertain relationship to the one beyond. It calls to mind the ambiguous relationship of the human to the mechanized and is rooted in the reuse of materials as an expression of the power of a transformative process that reflects the memory of a discourse
with our collective past. The installation encourages its audience to befriend the anxiety of the unknown, simply by inviting them to participate in it. This garden of life, and potentially the afterlife, is labyrinth-like in structure. It is composed of real and mechanical flowers and over 80 kilograms of surgical instruments, rife with their own rich histories of use, donated by the surgeons of the Länsi-Pohja
Central Hospital in Kemi, Finland. The participation of the visitor in Nature Morte is key to the conceit. The scalpels, clamps, needles and surgical tools respond to the presence of the viewers. Ultimately the deeply profound and playful Nature Morte, is a reminder of the opportunity of consciousness, hope and transcendence found in art to guide us in letting go of fears and embracing life in its fullness in the midst of an imminent and uncertain future for our contemporary world.
Kathleen Forde
Photographs: Ville Mäkilä / Turun museokeskus
FORREST ON A SAFE MODE 2022
Installation size variable.
Material Trees that have been grown over industrial objects.
MEÄN JEESUS 2022
Robotisized sculpture
Material: Taxidermy moose, electronics
Song of the Moose: Adam Huuva
Lyrics: Pekka & Teija Isorättyä
Photograph: WAM Turun kaupungin taidemuseo
Photographs: Lisa Kejonen Pauker / Konstmuseet i Norr
MECHANICAL WOLF 2018
Robotizised sculpture: taxidermy wolf, dna test, mixed media.
The material starting point of this work is a taxidermy wolf, which had been used for biology instruction until the 1990s. It was made by Aarne Hellemaa (1905-1962), a well-known ornithologist who stuffed 22,000 animals during his career, mostly birds.
We found the wolf in the basement of an abandoned school and sent samples of fur and a molar to the University of Oulu for genotyping. Jenni Harmoinen analysed the samples on 10 October 2018, which revealed that the wolf had lived in a wolf pack in Inari more than 100 years ago. The University of Oulu has samples from six individuals that come from the same wolf pack. Taxidermies of two of these individuals can be found at the Helsinki Museum of Natural History. Jenni Harmoinen and Eeva Jansson genotyped these old wolves for an article on the health of the wolf genome.
Photographs: Juha Åman
THE BUCK SALMON 2021
The Buck Salmon is 15 meters long and 3,5 meter high fish shape that has a cathedral-like space to step inside the sculpture.
It’s constructed from short stainless steel pipes.
REINDEER IN FROST 2021, KAKSLAUTTANEN, FINLAND
Material: Stainless steel
Height: 7 meters, length: 7 meter, width: 1 meter.
The monument was commissioned by Arctic Resort Kakslauttanen. Pipe construction forms majestic reindeer that seems to be sniffing the air and almost howling. Reindeer can be seen as a symbol of people surviving in North through all the seasons in harmony with the nature.
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INTERSTELLAR WALL 2021
Site specific artwork commissioned by Kakslauttanen Arctic resort for Planetarium Restaurant building. Material is casted artisan glass and blown glass conjoined in steel construction. As a material glass, that originates from stone, entwines the processes of planets and all the states of matter. Glass by Mafka & Alakoski Studio, Riihimäki, Finland.
POLICE'S VENDANCE 2021
Sculptural installation of nine individual five meter long fish shapes. Stainless steel pipes are used as material which are conjoined by welding. Entirety contains more than 10 000 pipes. The Artwork won Finlands State Art commission's completion of site specific art piece for the square in front of Lappeenranta Police Department. Vendace is typical lake fish and local delight.
Photograph: Juha Åman
MERMAID 2015
Materials: Tuna skin, wood, water pumps, electronics, plastic tubes and bottles. Size: height: 2,5 m; length: 4 m; width: 0,5 m.
The Mermaid imitates japanese puto dance. The movements are powered by liquids running between the bottles. During this dance, the Mermaid pumps air with its heart to an air pillow and then releases the air so time to time it sings a melancholy sigh.
Photograph: Ville Mäkilä / Turun museokeskus
LILJA'S GARDEN 2022
Electromechanic installation
Material: IV lines 1224 pcs, hoses, waterpumps, metal
Size of one flower height: 4 meters; lenght: 5 meters; width: 5meters
The IV lines used as the material for the piece come from eight-year-old Lilja Widenius. Lilja has a rare disease: her body cannot break down fats, which is why she cannot tolerate being without nutritional intake. Part of the treatment for this condition is a nightly IV drip. At night, when Lilja is going to bed, her parents connect an IV line to a small port placed in her abdomen. This ensures that Lilja gets the nutrients she needs while she sleeps. In the morning, her parents clean the disposable plastic line and store it as material for artwork. This treatment will continue throughout Lilja’s growing years. With the treatment, Lilja is a healthy and happy girl. The disease and its treatment were discovered some twenty years ago, before which it invariably resulted in the child's death.
We will expand the Lilja’s Garden work as more IV lines used by Lilja are collected. The work was exhibited for the first time at the Mäntta Art Festival in 2016. At that time, there was one Lilja Flowersculpture. The three Lilja’s Flowers on exhibit at WAM are compsrised of 1,224 IV lines. Water flows through them like the water veins in plants that are also part of their communication system. As artists, we find the story of Lilja and her family to be a powerful metaphor for the well of strength that people, often unconsciously, draw from to maintain their mental well-being. The significance of this mental resilience is particularly highlighted in unforeseen and difficult situations that challenge people's habits and thoughts.
Photographs: Juha Åman
INVALID ROBOTS 2010-2011
Series of electromechanical sculptures.
Materials: car electronics, hospital waste, hair, bones, metal. Size:1,5 x 0,8 x 0,5 meters.