As different as chalk and cheese - the English simile seems I'm told) to have no exact equivalent in Finnish. The impressive art work of two Finnish women recently on display  makes me want to propose a far stronger phrase: to mark the contrast between the light and the massive, frivolity and grandeur, let's say: as different as felt and granite (huopa ja graniitti). Laila Pullinen, one of Finland¹s most celebrated sculptors, well known for her work in bronze, also sculpts in granite. Elina Saari, not yet so well established, uses felt made out of lambswool as her medium.  Pullinen's subjects are monumental, weighing thousands of kilos - some of her latest pieces (we say bronzes - but can we say granites?) bear such titles as Bearer of the Sun or Dedalus; Saari the felter's objects weigh almost nothing  - she makes hats. They are hats with a difference; they could  change your mood, perhaps your life!

Saari's delicately coloured hats, trailing long tendrils, bring fantasy and
a touch of fairytale. Sometimes she makes hats an occasion for surreal
absurdity - decorated with licence plates, bicycle parts, cupboard handles, or dyed reindeer horns (her hats adorn the weatherman on TV4).  Saari dyes the wool and then starts felting it until, four to eight hours later, she has turned it into a hat.  It can easily be shaped to fit the head, turning  the wearer, man or woman,  into a sprite.

Saari is both craftswoman and artist - her work created a sensation at the Crafts Council's  Chelsea Fair in October, but you can see it in at least three places in Helsinki - in the harbour market, at the Kiseleffin Bazaar in Senate House Square, and sometimes in KIASMA, the splendid new  Museum of Contemporary Arts just by Mannerheim's statue. Argonaut 1, one of Pullinen¹s large new pieces in granite, seen recently in the sculpture park at Nissbacka Manor, dramatically exploits the red strands of mainly black Mantsala granite; it  maintains a continuity of line and form with her well known work in bronze.

Pullinen is both artist and campaigner. She and three other  sculptors on show at Nissbacka (Ukri Merikanto, Matti Peltokangas and Matti Nurminen) have issued a Manifesto for Finnish Granite . They want their work  to  demonstrate the beauty and richness that Finnish granite has to offer.
' We want... to present its versatility and plurality as a national treasure, and believe all of its  possibilities of use should be explored and developed.'  I asked her why she felt it necessary to campaign for this local stone. 'Well', she asked, with an incredulous tone, 'what was the point of using marble from Italy for Finlandia House?'. The marble on the capital's main concert hall, designed by the great Alvar Aalto, is crumbling - it can't stand the weather.

(Adapted from an article in Horisontti, the journal of Finnguild, December 2000)

 

 

Cover Drawing                                                          ROSE  WYLIE