KARI HUHTAMO ART FOUNDATION

SUOMI

2015 NORTHERN ARTIST

Mia Hamari
EMMA Areena. 27.03. - 10.05.2015.

Mia Hamari, Sculptures -  EMMA Areena 27.03. – 10.05.2015.
photo © Ella Tommila/EMMA

 

Best raw

Mia Hamari’s uncompromising, unique style and rich and elaborate sculpting arrests.
Finnish woodcarving’s long traditions are present, but not in the main role. Her works combine delicate materials management from wood to bone and strong sculpting: roughness of a chainsaw, strong strikes of an ax and smooth knife incisions. The wood’s unpredictability is also evident. Even logged wood continues living and responding to its environment.

Hamari often uses ready-made elements in her sculpture. Especially in this exhibition one can see how objects detached from their original purpose still bear traces of their past lives, and thus bring the past close in a very concrete way. You open the oven fire door and you remember the house where the oven was. You touch the harness, and your mind evokes memories of horses. While the past is only reflections, shadows, it is always present and alive within us.

Locality and ecology are timely and timeless issues and most importantly for Mia Hamari they are not only themes, but they influence the entire process of creation starting from the choice of material. In her works man and animal, inanimate nature and living nature are not opposites. They are pieces of which the experience of wholeness and meaning is built. The borders and shapes are fluid and constantly moving. Wood becomes a boy, bone a flower, harness hands, sleigh gets feet from hoofs, and the dragonfly’s fragile wings get covered in silver. Motion stops, the movement becomes eternal.

The world of Mia Hamari’s sculptures is not unambiguous. Therefore, it is best raw. Without conceptualization. Best raw. As such, when you look at it, stop and let it influence you.

Katariina Lipsanen