Drawing the Lines at Place 2010
Installation, 2,5 x 1,5 x 2,5 meters, nylon threads, 7500 jig-saw puzzle pieces, lead weights

Built within the public arena over a period of 28 days in the now decommissioned Paloheimo power plant Voimala, working 9.00am - 5.00pm, 7 days a week, where the public were invited to participate with me in the construction of the work or observe and engage with me during its making.

The Concept: This work explores our notions of place and non-place, collective memory and identity. I am interested in the enigma of the obscure ways in which place can shape and affect us or answer differently to how we understand ourselves in a place. Looking at place; not merely formed by its physical space, but as a collective construction, made up of the memories, experiences and traces of the individuals that pass through or inhabit them, which all combined, create a multi-faceted perspective, from which emerges a shared identity.

I wanted the work to be something that can be read as playful, poignant, beautiful or intimidating

“We learn a place and how to visualize spatial relationships, as children, on foot and with imagination.
Place and the scale of space must be measured against our bodies and their capabilities.” Gary Snyder (“Blue Mountains Constantly Walking).

For the duration of the making period I curated & invited 3 other artists to occupy the Viomala space with works fitting the exhibition theme PLACE / SPACE

Invited artists: Kalle Mustonen: Dream of Balance, 2007-2008
Jukka Korpihete & Tuomas Laitinen Vanishing Point - Ghost Drive