2015 NORTHERN ARTIST
Mia Hamari
EMMA Areena. 27.03. - 10.05.2015.
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