Kaisu Koivisto. - Portfolio: Selection of Works Artist Statement - Biography. Kaisu Koivisto Käenkuja 8 A Helsinki, Finland

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1 From the series Landscapes of Longing (Liepaja, Latvia) Pigment print; 2012 Kaisu Koivisto - Portfolio: Selection of Works Artist Statement - Biography Kaisu Koivisto Käenkuja 8 A Helsinki, Finland kaisukk@yahoo.com

2 Kaisu Koivisto: Mountain Shoes Hiking boots, electrolysis zinc-coated steel; x 50 x 40 cm

3 Kaisu Koivisto: Echo I Electro-zinc plated steel, wood, mirror; x 65 x 48 cm

4 Kaisu Koivisto: From the series Landscapes of Longing (Barentsburg, Svalbard) Lambda print / Silisec; x 90 cm

5 Kaisu Koivisto: From the series Landscapes of Longing (Barentsburg, Svalbard) Lambda print / Silisec; x 90 cm

6 Kaisu Koivisto: Land and Labor Lambda print / Silisec; x 90 cm

7 Kaisu Koivisto: The Wild North II (Pyramiden, Svalbard) Lambda print / Silisec; parts, 60 x 90 cm each

8 Kaisu Koivisto: The Wild North III (Pyramiden, Svalbard) Lambda print / Silisec; x 90 cm each

9 Kaisu Koivisto: Looking for Snow Lambda print / Silisec; x 90 cm each

10 Kaisu Koivisto: Natural Phenomena I Video, 2014, 3 min 58 sec

11 Kaisu Koivisto: Artist Statement The relationship between natural phenomena and technologies is an ongoing subject of exploration for me. I investigate the intersections of nature and culture and the modes in which mankind harnesses and exploits - or attempts to control - natural phenomena. How do we look at animals and nature? What is nature? How is the impact of technologies visible in the environment? My artistic practice traverses photography, drawing, video and sculptural elements. These diverse strands come together in the framework of installations. The topics and materials which I focus on are charged: materials such as recycled leather and fur, bones, horns and other organic matter bear traces of wear and tear, thus indicating the passage of time. The transience of materials is a connecting aspect of my sculptures and photographs. I am interested in an ambivalent aesthetic, the simultaneity of attractiveness and repulsiveness, the synthetic and the organic, stark geometry and the ornamental. I am inspired by the rough wilderness of the North as well as by the signs of human activity in the environment. Thus, my work tell more about people than nature: about the commodification of nature, the production of raw materials and the allegorical aspects of natural phenomena. The roots of my work are also in the realms of zoos, wunderkammers, science fiction and domesticated animals. My interest in cultivated and restrained nature leads me to well-known metropolises as well as areas which no longer are in focus of international geopolitical attention. Places in a dreamy state of oblivion such as former Cold War nuclear missile bases in Eastern Europe represent in my works estranged landscapes of the subconscious. Left to the elements, the massive structures of the abandoned areas gradually erode and become engulfed by vegetation. Kaisu Koivisto drawing rubbings on abandoned nuclear missile launch pads. Taurage, Lithuania (2011) and Barta, Latvia (2012).

12 Biography / Kaisu Koivisto In her works Kaisu Koivisto incorporates different media and materials such as salvaged leather and fur as well as steel. Installations, photography, drawing and video are integral aspects of her artistic practice. Koivisto's topics are often closely knitted with the materials she employs: waste materials produced by a society of excess. Regardless of the topic or medium of the work, an undercurrent of uncertainties tinges her works. Intriguing, beautiful materials and images have a seductive aesthetic. It attracts the spectator, who gradually perceives other meanings - the dark side of stories - than one can see at first glance. Kaisu Koivisto s work have been shown for instance in the following institutions: Museo Hendrik Christian Andersen, Rome; Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid; PS 1, New York; Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia; Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, Galleria Sculptor, Helsinki; Pori Art Museum, Pori. Kaisu Koivisto (b.1962) has studied at the University of Art and Design Helsinki (MFA). She has also studied art history and aesthetics at the University of Helsinki. She lives in Helsinki, Finland.

13 Kaisu Koivisto: Oblivion Video :03:58; 2012 On Vimeo: I would like to forget, I would like to remember. Political, historical and economical aspects meet in a remote forest clearing in Latvia. The film shows fragments of images from the Cold War time, when also Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union. I clean a Soviet army propaganda art relief of debris, moss and weeds. The exposed concrete work, tipped over by vandalism or the forces of nature, depicts the history of the Soviet army from felt-capped warriors and cavalry to troops which operate space-age airplanes and missiles. Oblivion refers to quotidian chores such as cleaning and organizing: I sweep, brush and wipe. It is not a solemn ritual such as an unveiling of a sculpture. The concrete relief is not a celebrated art work; it is a redundant and forgotten piece of propagandist representations. The overgrown site where the relief is situated used to be full of activity; part of the arms race of the super powers. I want to bring forth the abandoned plaque in its cracked condition. What does it tell us? How do we look at ideological images of the past and how does it relate to the ideological images of today? I made the work in 2012; now, in 2015, the images and their messages on the concrete relief are poignant reminders of the current political situation. The focus of the video work concerns the ways in which the past is remembered or forgotten. In a wider context the work deals also with the issue of how and why objects, as signs of the past, are taken care of, neglected or destroyed.

14 Kaisu Koivisto: From the series Missile Hangars Pigment print; x 150 cm