Päivi Maunu: Mariaanit 2021

Completion year: 2021

Technique: Sea Glass sculpture

Keywords: Päivi Maunu, ympäristötaide, merilasi, mariaanit

Mariana Trench

Telegraph Gallery – Harakka Island – Helsinki

‘It is peculiar that once species with its equipment has flown the moon to the sky and dived into the Mariana Trench.’

The work in this exhibition has been inspired by a sense of wonder for the creatures of the deep biosphere that are mirrored in the stars of the galaxy.

The Mariana-artworks, which are made of sea-glass, have acquired their contours from nature. In the exhibition, the Mariana have drifted in to accompany the Medusa. In the installation, the horizontal, structured order is met by the free-floating vertical axes of the spheres. The oracle of the Cyclops is observing the moment from the ceiling of the Telegraph. Like a chameleon octopus, the dull grey glass reveals its original colour in the creation of the artwork.

The principal material of this ecological artwork, which has been under development for a number of years, is sea-glass washed onto the shores of Harakka island by the ice and the waves. The glass is moulded by the fine-grained sand of the sea into which is embedded glass that has for years resided in cupboards or wandered in the currents of the sea. Could a small splinter of glass originate in the glass garden created by the underwater volcanic eruption of the Mariana Trench?

Supported by Arts Promotion Centre Finland

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