KASA shelves from recycled materials made in 2005, 2015 and 2025

The creation of most contemporary products is driven by trends; durability of form, structural strength, and the longevity of wearable objects interest neither manufacturers or users. The outlook embeds within the object the very factors that pollute our environment. Thus, I prefer the user instead the consumer. A designer’s universe is necessarily finite. Each designer should claim a small slice of the larger whole and make it their own. Progress comes small, deliberate steps, supported by a reliable of skilled craftspeople.

More about the exhibition concept: 

https://fiskarsvillage.fi/en/see-and-do/events-and-exhibitions/quiet-north-nayttely

Exhibition together with a colleaque, artis Pentti Hakala and a student of industrial design Aatu Mäkinen in Ahku Gallery, Saarijärvi until 7.7.2024.

Simo's input is a project with artesan students from Gradia, Jyväskylä, resulting two sofas, three chairs and a cabinet. Beside those some new items like a food lamp 'Paiste', made of symbal, copper and brass and the door handles of curly birch.

Left: Children in evil, 1988;  Right:  Jewellery box, 1992

U L L A   V I R T A - F U L L   O N

Curated by Teija Isohauta

Two years project in working with artist Ulla Virta has been a kind of refresments after working on in researching Alvar Aalto. The retrospective exhibition is held in A2, in art hall designed by Aalto in 1959. Internationally known wood prints by the artist are now shown only as a context. 

The exhibition highlights Virta’s expressionistic paintings. Regardless of her chosen technique, the same subjects keep recurring in her oeuvre: Animals, personal relationships and life as a woman. She paints animals with great tenderness, and she is candid about the uglier side of intimate relationships. Her sensual women are portrayed with warm humour, even in contexts of grief or tragedy. Her paintings are feminist without an emphasis on the ‘ism’.