Alicja Kwade’s sculptures challenge us to question our perceptions and understanding of the reality around us.
Alicja Kwade’s (b. 1979) works play with the materiality of matter itself and the emptiness it consists of. According to the artist the world we live our everyday lives in is only based on social agreements we draft about our perceptions of it. Our understanding of reality and what we have learned to hold as solid truths is just based on our limited senses and as a consequence cannot be complete. To indicate simultaneous states of the same object and finally the existence of parallel worlds, the artist sometimes uses mirror images or reflections like a window into another reality. Her works contemplate our relationship with nature, our place in the universe and the continuous transformation of our world, also as broader philosophical questions.
Alicja Kwade: Big Be-Hide, 2019 ©Maija Toivanen/HAM/Helsinki Biennial 2021
Big Be-Hide, 2019
Two stones sit on either side of a steel sheet with two-sided reflective surfaces. One stone is a real rock; the other is its metallic mirror image in Alicja Kwade’s Big Be-Hide. The artist selected a partially submerged boulder at the southern end of a neck of land between Vallisaari and Kuninkaansaari. The location – on a strip of land dividing the bay from the open sea – similarly reflects on the different-versus-identical theme.
After Helsinki Biennial, the work will be placed on permanent display as a public artwork in the Helsinki neighbourhood of Kalasatama.
Alicja Kwade: Pars pro Toto, 2018 ©Maija Toivanen/HAM/Helsinki Biennial 2021
Pars pro Toto, 2018
The round objects on the rocky shore look as if they had landed there accidentally, like scattered billiard balls. Pars Pro Toto consists of eight different-sized stone globes resembling the planets of our solar system. The natural stones come from the various continents of our Earth and also symbolize them. Typically for Kwade, the work plays with scale and signification, inviting us to contextualize our existence and problems in relation to the vast scale of the universe.
The work is part of an edition. One version featured at the 2017 Venice Biennale. After the Helsinki Biennial, the work will be placed on permanent display as a public artwork in the Helsinki neighbourhood of Kalasatama.
Photo 1: Luise Müller-Hofstede
Alicja Kwade
Big Be-Hide
2019
Granite, aluminium, mirror, powdercoated stainless steel
Commissioned by HAM/Helsinki Biennial 2021 and Kalasatama Environmental Art Project
Pars pro Toto
2018
8 natural stone globes
Commissioned by HAM/Helsinki Biennial 2021 and Kalasatama Environmental Art Project