Author Archives: viiksimaisteri

2014|| Exhibition view at The Hole Gallery|| Exhibition photography by Megan Cullen.

Detail of the work||
Exhibition photography by Megan Cullen.

Exhibition view at The Hole Gallery||
Exhibition photography by Megan Cullen.

KING |
Copper, Brass, steel, wood structure|
23 x 19 x 19 cm||
Photography by Paavo Lehtonen.

KNIGHT |
Marble, ash wood|
30 x 19 x 19 cm||
Photography by Paavo Lehtonen.

PAWN |
Concrete|
25 x 12 x 12 cm||
Photography by Paavo Lehtonen.

QUEEN |
Porcelain, glaze, white gold luster|
24 x 19 x 19 cm||
Photography by Paavo Lehtonen.

ROOK |
Steel, leather |
26 x 12 x 12 cm||
Photography by Paavo Lehtonen.

BISHOP |
Glass, gold sprayed rose|
38 x 14 x 14 cm||
Photography by Paavo Lehtonen.

Checkmate is part of Dislocation, a collaborative project together with an illustrator Jesse Auersalo and a photographer Nina Merikallio. It brings together sculpture and two-dimensional prints using traditional methods to produce avant-garde works on the borderland of art and design. The exhibited pieces in Checkmate fall into two categories of adult playthings: chess equipment and sex toys. Chess is essentially a game of strategy and intelligence while sex is instinctual. Checkmate explores the mutual connections and associations between the two games in relation to each other. What constitutes as a game? Can games be played without rules? How do the categories of form and function apply to playthings? Utterly unusable, displayed as unfinished game of chess in the gallery space, the Checkmate chess pieces consist of six sculptures reminiscent of dildos and butt plugs handcrafted in sophisticated materials. A numbered edition of photographic prints accompanies the sculptures. Taken by photographer Paavo Lehtonen, they embody the King, the Queen, the Rook, the Knight, the Bishop, and the Pawn.

The exhibition Dislocation explores different interpretations of the body ranging from over proportionate sex toys to platonic nudes. The exhibited pieces work on intellectual and primitive levels verging on the orgasmic. Introducing new ways of seeing the corporeal experience they question everyday design and fashion photography.

Checkmate sculptures and photographs were exhibited at The Hole Gallery, New York in 2014. Knight, from Checkmate series, has been exhibited at group exhibitions “A Cave for Play at Leikkiluola in 2018 and “How to Slow Rush” at Titanik Gallery, Turku in 2019.

2013 || 1/3 | BLUNTO | Marble, glass, gold plated copper | 54 x 49 x 49 cm ||Photography by Anna Niskanen.

Detail of the work||Photography by Anna Niskanen.

2/3|
BOYO|
Porcelain, glaze, white gold luster|
79 x 50 x 50cm||Photography by Anna Niskanen.

3/3|
PRIS|
Marble, diorite, glass, birch, acrylic, steel |
87 x 50 x 50cm||Photography by Anna Niskanen.

Detail of the work||Photography by Anna Niskanen.

The book is made in collaboration with
Jaakko Suomalainen (identity), Jukka Ovaskainen (photography)and Maria Tasula (journalist)||Photography by Anna Niskanen.

Semiprecious started as a journey to question the concept of value and presumptions of status within contemporary art. The three Semiprecious sculptures are made entirely using traditional and meticulous manual techniques such as sculpted marble and porcelain casts. They could essentially be used as water pipes, an object that has a rich history going back to 16th century Chinese nobility yet today seen as obscene. The illicit nature of the sculptures is deceived by the fine form that turns the audience’s response into positive, thus the underground camouflages itself to the auction house through valuable materials and craftsmanship.

Each sculpture is accompanied by an exhibition book that follows the challenges and joys of the work process throughout one year. Semiprecious is documented by photographer Jukka Ovaskainen and graphic designer Jaakko Suomalainen.

In collaboration with: Jaakko Suomalainen, Jukka Ovaskainen, Maria Tasula, Bukowskis, Shadi&Stephanie Productions, Cocoa Helsinki, Konstsamfundet, Fotoyks, Lasismi and Redfina. MODERN + CONTEMPORARY concept.

Semiprecious was exhibited and auctioned at Bukowskis Helsinki in November 2013. Blunto, from Semiprecious series, has been exhibited at “We Live Here” show at Stockholm Design Week 2015 and Boyo at “Table Talks” exhibition at Design Museum Arabia, Helsinki in 2015.

For more information: http://semiprecioussf.tumblr.com 

Porcelain Decks consists of ten porcelain decks and a short film made in collaboration with Cocoa Helsinki and Angel Films. The project combines the influences in surroundings including a clay and urban culture, in this case skateboarding. Clay known as a metaphor for malleable potential, a material which is meant to be shaped, works in a film as an imitation of transitory, a generalized shattering of wholeness: What was made has been un-made, and cannot be re-made. It is as if two worlds collide, one where the traditional handcrafting of brittle artifacts is valued partly because of the laborous and time-consuming manner of their production, and one of urban youth culture, where objects are not valued for their craftmanship but rather by their function. It is a thought-provoking artwork, where the rendezvous of these meticulously fabricated decks and the ardent nature of the sport for which they are supposedly prepared for is bound to end up in shattered pieces of porcelain.

The Porcelain Decks exhibition was held at CaliHelsinki, a skateboard concept store where the life size porcelain decks were in the same setting of their wooden counterparts.

In collaboration with: Taito Kawata (Cocoa Helsinki), Angel Films and Tomi Freeman (CTRL Clothing).

Porcelain Decks has been exhibited at CaliHelsinki and Helsinki Design Museum, both in 2012 and Clarion Hotel Sign Stockholm Design Week, in 2013. The Porcelain Decks short film has been exhibited at Arizona State University’s Art Museum Ceramics Research Center in 2015 and at the exhibition “Recorded Matter: Ceramics in Motion” which was shown at the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design in Asheville in 2016 and American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, in 2017.

2012

Duration: 03:21
DOP and post production: Taito Kawata (Cocoa Helsinki)
Directed by: Man Yau
Cast: Mikko Kivikoski