Way of the World - Works from Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation Collection

The exhibition exists in liminal spaces and reaches for glimpses of the invisible – without forgetting humour. The world and reality around us are brought to light from different points of view and various interpretations. Many of the works question whether our human-centric worldview is the right one.

In Marko Karo’s photographs the viewer encounters a landscape which is partly familiar, partly foreign and deserted. Karo gives shape to bypassed histories and alternative futures in a world which is crumbling as a result of our choices. In turn, Teemu Korpela contrasts laws of nature with our own subjective experiences in his painting The Way of the World. Rays of light aren’t perceived as a prism, and love isn’t felt as a neurochemical signal, because scientific facts and statements intermingle with our own personal experiences, forming tainted sensations that are hard to describe and express in words.

Hans-Peter Schütt has painted currently unknown beings – presumably animals – that cannot be found in zoological catalogues. Typical to humans, we start making logical assumptions of these unknown beings, trying to map out their anatomical features, evolutionary history, and behavioural traits. “We might as well approach these beings with the help of emotions and imagination. To try and understand their will to live and learn, to take care and to love, their dreams. Everything that in turn we imagine makes our lives meaningful,” Schütt muses.

Axel Antas likewise questions human-centricity and plays with different timespans. In his video work Still Life (Inertia Geometry), slugs examine geometric shapes and move effortlessly in their midst using their tentacles. They appear slow-moving in our eyes because their way of perceiving the world is different from ours. Using both analogue and digital methods, the 3D-printed flowers of the Compound Ecology -series have been documented in a way that pays homage to the botanical research of the 1600s.

A changing world and digital reality are also mirrored in the works in the exhibition. In Alina Sinivaara’s colourful paintings that which is private becomes shared. Sinivaara examines being alone and being in company. What kind of echoes did the isolation of the Covid-19 crisis leave in us, and on the other hand, what kind of connectedness did the different online platforms make possible? In The Quick Happens to Us, side-by-side screens show homes where people are dancing. When the view is shared with participants around the world, the private becomes shared and mutual.