Artist Statement

In the early 2010s, I developed a technique in which I distil colours from flowers, leaving them pale and colourless. The extracted colour pigments I preserve in various ways and display them alongside the white flowers. The technique is based on a notion that most organisms, both in the plant and the animal world, seem to lose their colours in death – flowers wither and bodies blanch. Thus, all the colours in nature signal the presence of a living force. In my three-dimensional paintings, the result is a poetic separation of the life energy (preserved colour) from its empty, pale body (decoloured flower).

For the last decade, I have painted exclusively with natural pigments, which define the conceptual message of each work. I prepare the pigments for my artworks by grinding a wide variety of raw materials, such as meteorites, animal bones and seashells, as well as by extracting colours from medicinal herbs, mushrooms and algae. Each material holds unique knowledge. I view the pigments as collaborators whose individual ‘experiences’ define the conceptual message of the artwork. Through the self-collected materials, many of the themes connect to a certain natural site around the world, wherein the more universal themes are addressed with unique materials collected with the help of specialists.

My practice draws on the traditions of painting, installation, and conceptual art. The works are marked by the artistic interpretation of alchemy, which explores the universe through natural materials, and animism, especially the Finnish nature worship. What alchemy and animism have in common is the perception of all surrounding nature as living and sensing. In Finnish nature worship, each natural environment is believed to be governed by a sprite that guards the region, influencing its well-being and prosperity. For our ancestors, maintaining a balanced relationship with these nature sprites through offerings was essential for ensuring good hunting, fishing, and harvesting.

In turn, medieval alchemists studied natural materials, which they also used to make colours. Through the materials, they sought to understand the surrounding universe as well as the interconnectedness of everything in the cosmos and the individual’s role among all others; oneself. The glass vessels I use in my works refer to this alchemical tradition and its illustrations. One of the most important steps in alchemy was repeated distillation, which left the purest essence of the substance – and the alchemist – in the glass flask.