Elsewhere
Solo exhibition, Galleria Ama, Helsinki November 27 – December 20, 2015
“The relationship between natural phenomena and technologies is an ongoing subject of exploration for me. I am inspired by the roughlandscapes of the North as well as by the signs of human activity in the environment. Thus, my work tell more about people than nature: about the commodification of nature, the quest for raw materials and the symbolical and allegorical aspects of natural phenomena. I explore topics which deal with history, world politics, ecology, tourism and aesthetics”, Kaisu Koivisto describes her artistic practice.
The common denominators of the photographs, sculptures and drawings in the exhibition are history, memory and the ways in which traces and objects from the past are present in the here and now, reminders of changes happening in the world. A suite of drawings on vintage maps forms one entity. Maps are charged, political objects. The modest pieces of printed matter bear history. Another body of works includes sculpture and photographs. During two visits to the Svalbard islands, situated in the High Arctic, Kaisu Koivisto photographed scenery in which redundant buildings appear as surrealistic structures amid the majestic landscape.
The layers of geological time visible in Svalbard are astonishing. The striped layers of eroded hill slopes show the history of the crust of the earth dating back millions of years. Recent layers are connected with the extraction of natural resources: from whaling and hunting to the mining of coal and minerals, and the speculation regarding reserves of oil.