Hanna Vahvaselkä (b.1973)
Hanna Vahvaselkä graduated as a sculptor from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1999 and as an arts educator from Aalto University in 2019. She works and lives in Mikkeli. Vahvaselkä creates large relief-like works of art from wood. Besides being the concrete material of the artworks, wood is also part of their conceptual content, for example, through cross-generational meanings and issues related to forest ecology. Her works of art often deal with memories, ways of remembering and the relationship between personal memories and collective memory.
“Over recent years, I have updated my relationship to matter, materials and my work methods. My works of art have partly broken away from their frames, billowed into the space and incorporated moving image and sound. In my most recent artwork design, I have even started to slide towards incorporeality.”
Visitors to the M_itä? Biennale of Contemporary Art can experience and participate in her artworks in the park next to the Pursiala glacial pothole. Vahvaselkä’s work has been funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
You can watch the completion of the artwork at www.monumentit.kuvat.fi.
Hanna Vahvaselkä is present at the park in the following way: 12.6.-4.9. Tue-Sat 10-17, Sat 18.9. 10-17, 21.9.-30.9. Tue-Sat 10-17 and 1.10.-9.10. Wed-Sat 10-17.
Photo: Harri Heinonen, © Hanna Vahvaselkä, Kuvasto ry, Harri Heinonen ja Mikkelin taidemuseo
Kohtaamisia (Encounters), 2021, wood, video, Mikkeli Art Museum
Kohtaamisia (Encounters), 2021, Pursiala Glacial pothole
The artwork was an inclusive artistic intervention and was constructed in the park next to the Pursiala glacial pothole together with the audience.
www.monumentit.kuvat.fi