Exploring Our Relationship with the Unknown

The sculptures on display invite us to reflect on our relationship with the surrounding world and the creatures that live there. How do we react when a character we encounter is unidentifiable and unfamiliar and does not fit in with the categories we have predefined? And can you always trust your initial reaction, or do your thoughts evolve when you give them some time to shape? 

Six contemporary Finnish sculptors participate in the exhibition: Jasmin Anoschkin, Mia Hamari, Johanna Havimäki, Kim Jotuni, Hanna Makkonen and Tiia Matikainen. The materials they use range from wood to ceramics, from glass to metal and from 3D printed to recycled items. 

The Artists

Jasmin Anoschkin’s (b. 1980) artworks are colourful, rough and full of joy. The inspiration for them stems from the imaginary world of childhood, and you can almost hear them calling you to come and play. Some of the characters are named and can easily be identified as a koala, a bambi or a sea horse. In some cases, identification depends on the viewer’s imagination. Anoschkin uses wood, ceramics and glass as a material and creates characters whose self-confident imperfection gives us, too, the courage to be exactly what we are. 

Mia Hamari’s (b. 1976) artworks find their inspiration from dreams, stories and the furthest reaches of the mind. Human and animal characters merge and form something completely new. The atmosphere of the artworks is often melancholy, and a reflective look lingers on the characters’ faces. Hamari uses wood that has been marked by the weather and natural conditions as her main material on which she also works with outdoors. She combines other materials with wood, such as iron, horsehair or bone. 

Johanna Havimäki (b. 1978) uses leather jackets discarded from clothing use as the material for her works. She uses them to create expressive and unique animal characters; the leather jacket seems to come alive again in a new shape and in the bright tones of industrial colours. The origin of the material is clearly visible in the zippers, buttons and snap fasteners decorating the characters. The installation Strangers (2017–2023) plays with the tendency of the human eye to find characters even where there are none.  

The starting point for Kim Jotuni’s (b. 1982) work is wood. The sculptures show the marks of the working process and the structure assembled from pieces. The body language of the artworks is emotive and relatable. Instead of posing proudly, the characters may glance around, looking a little confused, or rest on the floor with a poor posture. Jotuni also combines 3D animation and sound with his sculptures. The pair of artworks Communication (2021) includes embedded speakers playing speech, heartbeat and intestinal sounds. 

Hanna Makkonen (b.1991) uses both traditional metal casting techniques and new technologies, such as 3D scanning and printing, in her artworks. She combines futuristic elements with the classic themes of sculpture: the body of a human or animal is combined with something unexpected and strange. Some of the artworks seem to have stopped in the middle of a transformation, others have already taken full control of their new form and present themselves to us completely naturally and unapologetically. 

Tiia Matikainen (b. 1975) is interested in Finnish folk beliefs, the relationship with nature it entails, and especially the beliefs related to forests. For her, the forest is a mythical place providing shelter. The artworks of the Forest Spirits series (2021) are based on the human figure covered in lichen, bark or sand, gradually disappearing from sight. The sculptures portray forest people, intermediaries and guardians between humans and nature.  

The exhibition is curated by Anna Franck, Exhibitions Curator at Museum Centre of Turku.