Copper Smithy, Fiskars
24.5.-20.9.2015
Finnish wood is a local, ecological material that inspires the creation of remarkable innovations and export products. WE LOVE WOOD(s)! seeks new forms for wood, highlighting top Finnish handicraft skills – by means of internationally renowned design. The wood crafting skills come mainly from Fiskars and neighbouring villages, the designs from Finland, Sweden and Norway. Utility items have been made of e.g. ash, birch, aspen, pine and Lappish red-hearted pine.
The exhibition is open from 24 May to 20 September at the Copper Smithy in Fiskars. The new products are for sale; please make inquiries at the exhibition and the Onoma Shop. You can follow WE LOVE WOOD(s)! news online at www.welovewoods.com and www.facebook.com/We love woods.
“Wood is a charming material of long-lasting, exquisite beauty that feels good in the hand. In Fiskars, the symbiosis of insightful design and profound familiarity with material is now bringing forth new utility items of high quality, unpretentiously embodying the philosophy of the more beautiful everyday. The time of over consumption is over, and wood, so well known by us Finns, presents itself again as a topical alternative material.” By these words architect Kirsi Gullichsen crystallizes the themes of the exhibition.
The multidisciplinary WE LOVE WOOD(s)! exhibition studies the essence of wood from many fascinating perspectives. The works on display include the “Maisema” (Landscape) series of carborundum drawings by painter Jukka Mäkelä, a forestal sound installation by artist Ron Nordström, works of wood by sculptor Martti Aiha and the Norwegian sculptor Knut Wold. The local artist Piitu Nykopp’s work “Kiitos Metsä!” (Thanks to the Forest!) will be placed along the Fiskars arboreal path. In Karin Widnäs’s ceramic spruce branches one can see the bark beetle’s mysterious, decorative paths, while artist Howard Smith has created individual small sculptures out of found pieces of wood. Sound artist Olli Kari has made an installation using wooden instruments that play with the subtle frequencies of wood itself.
In June, the performance of Saine Ensemble, “Trees always grow upwards?”, gathers the audience at the base of the oldest oak tree in the village.
