KARI HUHTAMO ART FOUNDATION

SUOMI

2010 NORTHERN ARTIST

Sauli Miettunen: Kötöstyksiä
Amos Anderson Museum of Art. 2.12.2010 -17.1.2011.

Sauli Miettunen exhibition: Kötöstyksiä.
photo © Kari Siltala

 

Kötöstyksiä -exhibition took the viewer to a journey into a fictional archeological collection. Concrete, metal, wood and glass were metamorphosed into relics of insects and creatures of deep seas carefully protected in their glass showcases. The viewer was enticed by the traces of their human counterparts that seemed to have shared the world with these mythical creatures: a delicate feather pillow they rested on, a gnarled wooden instrument that once brought joy into their long nights, and luxurious feather totems they once worshipped. Orange rinds, withered flowers and lumps of mozzarella were immortalized in resin and displayed in wooden frames elevating their status from mere remnants into precious clues of something irrevocably lost.

True to the zeitgeist and the very essence of contemporary art, the artist himself takes a somewhat ironic stance to his work. Sauli Miettunen calls these works kötöstys: An onomatopoetic word that means something created ad-hoc, out of material in hand, without premeditation and careful planning. One should not be fooled by the artist’s modesty though. Miettunen’s works may look like outsider art and the titles speak of innocent tongue-in-cheek humor, but technically flawless execution and references to the art and cultural history reveal that under the smirk there is a professional at work. His works constantly converse with the surrounding reality and ways of making art. Miettunen also continues to work on the ancient enigma of art: What does it tell about human beings, that we constantly fabricate nature through art?

FM, B.A. (NYU) Katariina Lipsanen

"Unibourree" Sauli Miettunen: Kötöstyksiä"Janne & Kaisa" Amos Anderson Art Museum. The first artist of the triennial was Sauli Miettunen."Panopuu" Sauli Miettunen: Kötöstyksiä - Amos Anderson Museum of Art. 2.12.2010 -17.1.2011."Rakkaus" The first exhibition of the Foundation’s Northern Artist-project.Northern Artist –triennial project.
photo © Kari Siltala

 

(See Links for further information on the artist and how the exhibition was received by the critics.)

exhibitions
2010 NORTHERN ARTIST
Sauli Miettunen: Kötöstyksiä - Amos Anderson Museum of Art. 2.12.2010 -17.1.2011.
2012 THE MAGIC OF LAPLAND2012 THE MAGIC OF LAPLAND

Ateneum, Helsinki
 18.06.2011 – 08.01.2012.
2012 THE MAGIC OF LAPLAND
Korundi, Rovaniemi 10.12.2012 – 13.05.2012.
2012-2013 NORTHERN FINLAND BIENNALE
SNOWBALL EFFECT - Oulu Art Museum. 22.9.2012 - 20.01.2013.