Forest

ANNI AVELA @a.ovela

Notice Me (Huomaa minut) • 2024 • location-related • 14 recycled frames of various sizes • € on request

What do you see when you walk in the forest? What catches your attention, and what delights or amazes you? The forest is, and it doesn’t need anything else. A person walks often blindfolded, physically there, mentally elsewhere. Or purposefully looking for berries, mushrooms, species, cubes, treasures, sinks, and numbers. You can’t see the forest from the trees. Notice Me directs attention to the surrounding forest. It attempts to bring out the diverse nature of the forest. At the same time, however, it shows how I looked at it through my glasses. The work also allows visitors to add attention and tell what they are looking at. The forest is the same for everyone, yet different for everyone. The history of painting rests in the landscape and effort to capture the view. The window is a board embedded in the architecture. The work takes the frame where it has always been, around the view.

 

JOHANNA LUMME @johannalumme

The portrait of the forest • wood, fibre • frames of various sizes • € on request

The forest portrait work consists of frames placed in the forest. They invite visitors to the forest to look at and explore what is behind the frame. The frames tickle with their curiosity; some indicate the direction, but the border visitor can decide whether it is close or far, seen from an angle, from above or below. What is revealed behind the frame? The visitor gets to know the details hidden in the forest, its shapes and textures, the essence that shows itself to us in so many different ways as long as we are ready to look.

 

7ODES @7.0.d.e.s

César is playing (César leikkii) • 2024 • tarred and carved plywood • 90 x 30 x 2 cm • € on request

César is playing is a poem written in French that refers to the artist’s traumatic past. Using the boustrophédon writing technique, it reads empowering words for the future.

 

LORENZO MAROTTI @lorenzo.marotti

Untitled • 2024 • cyanotype on cotton • 150 x 100 cm • not for sale

The fabric medium, with its dynamic presence, adapts to the forest’s daily rhythms, moving with the wind and embodying a fluid, almost ethereal quality. This choice of material allows the artwork to blend seamlessly with the environment and to mirror the natural setting, changing with the environment. The fabric’s semi-transparent nature enables the sunlight to filter through the trees, casting an ever-changing pattern of light and shadow. The interaction between the artwork and the natural light weaves the natural setting into the fabric of the artwork, creating a living tapestry that changes from moment to moment.

 

ELINA HONKANEN @elinahonkanen

On Becoming I-V • 2024 • linden, birch, pine • 5 x 5 cm • á 150 €

The rings are carved out of wood with hand tools: a knife and my grandfather’s old chisels. The work is slow and respectful of the material; carving happens where the tree allows. Work starts with a piece of wood drilled with a hole. Does the wooden ring become part of the forest, or does it always carry the idea of ​​the body, the concept of ​​a person?

 

RIINA TALVIKKI @riina.talvikki

descendant of the dusk • 2024 • glazed ceramics, charcoal, synthetic hair • 20 x 16 x 14 cm • 400 €

descendant of the dusk is part of a project called i have memories of species. The project portrays imagined life forms that have evolved as a result of pollution and annihilation: creatures of the night, alien species, and offspring of the doom that will inherit the earth after humans.

 

KEVIN KAREL @kevn.karel

33:33:33:17:98 • 2024 • textile sculpture • 75 x 75 x 65 cm • 1 600 €

The cube-shaped soft and plump textile sculpture seems like a misplaced object in the forest. The cube’s surface consists of grid-like panelling interwoven with thick textile tubes filled with cotton wool. Fluffy tufts and stems with rough mesh details appear like natural growth between the grid structure. The work plays with the proportions of schematic and organic forms and springs from the relationship between humans and nature. 

 

KAROLIINA KORHONEN @karkkikorhonen

May my mind grow flowers • 2024 • acrylic on canvas • 61 x 50 cm • 300 €

May my mind grow flowers includes an acrylic painting and a poem. The work discusses the human relationship with nature and expresses a wish for a better future.

 

SALLA SILLGREN @sallasillgren

Can you find your way there (Löydätkö perille) • 2021 • glazed ceramics • 25 x 15 x 10 cm • 400 €

Kauas kuljet,
Kauan olet poissa
Iäisyyteen katoavat askeleesi
Löydätkö perille?
Pian on pelkkä
ihmeellinen tyhjyys,
jossa vain puro solisee

The work deals with death and abandonment, growth, roots, and searching for and finding connection.

 

AEON LUX @aeonluxus

Magician (Maagikko) • 2024 • high-fired stoneware clay, glaze, iron oxide • 23.5 x 31 x 2.7 cm • 450 €

The subconscious, dreams, and the Magician card of the tarot cards inspire Magician. The character in the work is on her knees in the forest, as if in the middle of a ritual circle. Holding a burning candle in one hand and something resembling a viper and a mourning hair band in the other. In the front is a scale where the flame and the burnt substance balance. The character has the underwear halfway up the thigh. The work deals with balancing light and sadness as part of life. The symbol of the candle attaches the character to the spiritual world, guidance, intuition, happiness and fulfilment. In contrast, the ribbon attaches her to physical reality and realities, where things go through twists, turns, and pain. The character has removed her judge’s headband and underwear, ready to surrender and accept life with all it offers, even without defining right and wrong in advance. Vegetation blooms around, symbolising the richness of life experiences and the balanced scale of how all accumulated experiences are finally weighed equally after death.

 

BENJAMIN KASSINEN @benjaminkhd

Eyes (Silmät) • 2024 • oil on birch • 30 x 5 cm • 200 €

 

MARIA SHILNIKOVA @maria.shilnikova.ceramics

Enchanted Flora • 2024 • ceramics • porcelain • glazes • cotton threads • 20 x 20 cm • 450 €

Enchanted Flora is a miniature porcelain sculpture celebrating our deep connection to nature. Inspired by childhood memories of exploring forests, the piece captures the whimsical and imaginary plants dreamed up back then. The work is a tribute to the peace and inspiration that the natural world brings, reminding us of our place, sometimes hidden deep in the forest.

 

ANNA HALLIKAINEN @anna___teresia

Hide-and-seek • oil on rock • ~ 10 x 40 x 30 cm • 150 €

Hide-and-seek is an oil painting on a stone found in the yard. Stone is a weighty material, while the picture painted on its surface is light and dreamy. Symbolic depth is attached to a seemingly mundane object, leaving the viewer room for free interpretation.

 

PAJU HÄMÄLÄINEN @paju.juu

Oyster (Osteri) • 2023 • tin • 4 x 11 cm • 140 €

The small sculpture deals with the creation of trauma and its effect on the individual. The work deals with the theme, taking direct influences from nature and its legends. Oysters often symbolize femininity, sexuality, and wealth. The oyster shell protects its fragile and beautiful content from the viewer. The shell is sharp and has grown due to conditions and trauma.

 

TOARIE STRANDMAN @toaries_

Cuticles (Kutikulat) • 2024 • bioplastic, dried plants, glass, stone beads • 30 x 30 cm • € on request

Kutikulat, kalvot, veden iho
Happena kidusten läpi
Kuplana virrassa
Sylkenä kuoren ja lihan välillä

Cuticles captures a moment of spring when the most delicate little flowers emerge after winter. It is the surface tension of water, the cuticle between the eggshell and the embryo, and the cornea of ​​the eye. It protects the memory of life inside. The piece is part of the biomaterial experiments. When it breaks down, it becomes a part of nature again.

 

ELINA PRIHA @elinapriha

Ear Mussels (Korvasimpukat) • 2022 • glazed ceramics • á 10 x 13 cm • á 50 €

A memory of walking along the shores of a familiar island, finding piles of empty mussel shells hiding within the reefs. Working with the material entails anticipating what might emerge: moulding the same kind of shell shape repeatedly; it slowly starts resembling an ear. Pressing an empty shell on one’s ear is almost an inbuilt reflex. Perhaps it was an unconscious effort of literally trying to listen to what the material was saying. The forest also tells many stories if you know how to listen.

 

FIA-LO LINNÉA EMELIE DOEPEL @fialinneaemelie

Untitled Entanglement • 2024 • photographic fiber paper, plexi, pebbles • 30 x 24 x 6 cm • 160 €

 

MARIA LESKINEN @maria.leskinen

Nature is watching I, II, III • 2024 • acrylic and spray lacquer on stone • á 4 x 4 x 2 cm • á 65 €

The Nature is watching series includes three stone eye paintings representing endangered animal species living in Finland. Visitors are encouraged to guess which animals’ eyes are painted. It’s fascinating how just one eye can help us identify a particular animal. By observing the artworks, we also take time to face the animals.

 

PAULA PÄÄKKÖNEN @pau_ladesign

Peas Gateway #1 •2024 • mouth blown and mirrored glass • 70 x 40 cm • 9 400 €

Artist Paula Pääkkönen is investigating the theme of change through her Gateway pieces. As a child, she used to look for “fairy gates” in the forests. A fairy gate can be a spring or maybe a young tree bent to the ground by the weight of the snow. Going through or looking into a fairy gate while making a wish for the future was a favourite habit for the artist as a child. These arches and circles represent the doors we choose to open when changing.

 

VENLA VANAKOSKI & ONNI KUIVALAHTI @bububu_bybyby @mapimoopi

Sometimes I go to the forest to be scared (Joskus menen metsään pelkäämään) • location-related horror story, riso print, sculpture, wood, mixed media • print 10 € / price on request

The work deals with the fear of the forest and fear in the forest. The fear springs from the unknown of nature outside of man. The forest is partly unmanageable for humans; its scale is, at times, too large and too small, and it is a multi-living organism that is both an environment and a being. The fear evoked by the forest is a magical, ancient fear, which includes, among other things, the helplessness experienced in nature, of others, the encounter of beings, ignorant, challenging to perceive and sense, unknown and powerful differences. When we experience fear, we stop to sense what surrounds us. The work is in two parts. The first part is a short location-related forest-themed horror story, which ponders various fears commonly associated with the forest and explores the forest as a living space in which the reader’s physicality mixes with the presence of breathing and perceiving forest space. The story is a single-color grid print. The printed booklet describes natural landmarks on the spot, which the exhibition visitor can use to orient himself along with the story. The work’s second part is a hut made of natural materials collected from the site and brought to the site (wood, jute fabric, jute string, nails, etc.). The print is placed inside the hut. The hut sculpture looks like a witch’s hut or possibly some tiny creature hut or roof in the forest.