Artist's statement
My installations are borne out of the signs of places, spaces and time; the oldest object collages are from 1988. Typical for my art is that I sculpt the space and build my works of the materially worthless second-hand objects and items. Often the objects find me. I am instinctively drawn towards certain types of materials; I'm not just hoarding objects randomly.
My first collages were created from the timber of the demolished houses of the old wooden town of Kuopio. Pieces of urban architecture merge with the rural life, not so far from the Kuopio market in the 1980's. Cow bells, horse's shaft bells, sheep bells, sleigh bells, brushes, hides, and tarred skis were the materials of my time travel works.
Popular items from different decades reflect the people and the cultural currents of their times. They place the artwork into a historical context and increase recognisability. For example, take the crimplene dresses of the 60's. Crimplene dresses were made especially for Russian export. I lived in the Soviet Union during 1987-1988, and in my works I have observed the rich and flavourful everyday life of our eastern neighbour. It was a time of drought - suchoye vremya - when Gorbachev tried to root out drinking at workplaces and on free time by banning alcohol sales almost completely in order to tackle the wide-spread alcoholism in the country. Saint Petersburg - called Leningrad at the time - was like one big performance or installation. An endless source of inspiration.
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