Hans Rosenström (b. 1978) is a Finnish-born artist who works at the intersection of sound and space. His practice centers on the intimacies of the voice and the act of listening as a way to give attention to our surroundings.
Our voice originates deep within our bodies, but to be heard, it must separate from us and engage with the body of another living being. When we speak, whisper, or sing, we close the distance between ourselves and others, essentially touching others through our voice. Rosenström’s art explores this border-crossing quality of the voice, its ability to transcend the physical separation between us, and the deeper implications of this connection.
Through his site-specific installations, Rosenström uses sound to heighten awareness of our presence and connection to the environment around us.
Photo: Nordic Embassies/Bernhard Ludewig
Hans Rosenström: Tidal Tears, 2025. Helsinki Biennial 8.6.–21.9.2025, Vallisaari Island. Photo: HAM / Helsinki Biennial / Sonja Hyytiäinen
Tidal Tears, 2025
Artwork location: Vallisaari Island
The departure point for his artwork on Vallisaari Island is the slowly changing environment of the site. Reduced human activity and the deterioration of built infrastructure has allowed other forms of life to thrive on the island. This interplay of decomposition and rebirth is a pattern that recurs within other biological systems, such as forests and even our own respiration. The elements in the installation – floating sound, pooling water, the stillness of petrified wood, and the brief presence of the visitor – bring together contrasting temporalities in the continuous cycles of nature.
Sound waves are energy experienced only during the fleeting moment of hearing, whereas the petrified elements epitomize extremely slow processes of change. The fossil wood in the installation is the excavated remains of Dipterocarpus plants, a family of winged seed plants that have petrified over a period of 20 million years, embodying in their very presence a tangible memory of pre-human time.
Water, an even older substance, is a unifying force for all living beings; through a shared experience of thirst and processes of circulation, water connects bodies across vast distances and stretches of time.
As visitors walk along the path, their presence activates a voiced soundscape that mimics the natural sounds of the site – both those audible to the human ear and those beyond its reach, like the minuscule life in the soil. The sounds move in breath-like waves reflecting the processes of growth and decay, rising from low underground frequencies to the treetops and returning down to the earth. The non-human sounds, interpreted by human voices, connect listeners to their own corporeality, enfolding them in the experience as a part of the artwork.
The Tiftö Foundation enables Hans Rosenström’s new work.