In her sculptures, Laura Könönen combines materials in surprising ways with everyday things, such as a telephone booth, a speaker cabinet or a dying bonfire, thus creating new visual languages.
Laura Könönen (b. 1980) often selects stone as a material as, to her, it symbolises silence without the presence of humans, when all sound has disappeared. “The stone sets itself on a different timeline than the existence of the individual,” says Könönen. The artist combines material in surprising ways with everyday things, such as a telephone booth, a speaker cabinet or a dying bonfire, thus creating different language images with her works. Könönen explains that she wants to bring the melancholy of existence to her works in this way.
In addition to black diorite, Könönen uses materials such as marble, light, sound, steel and glass. Often interlayering her work with her own written metaphors, the artist alludes to various conceptual thoughts and ideas.
Laura Könönen: No Heaven up in the Sky, 2021 ©Maija Toivanen/HAM/Helsinki Biennial 2021
No Heaven up in the Sky, 2021
Laura Könönen’s sculpture portrays a piece of sky that has fallen to earth and now lies on the ground in shattered shards. The visitor arrives on the scene of this dramatic event, bearing witness to the rubble of collapsed structures once thought to be solid. The sculpture blows apart things we believe to be lasting.
The work consists of eight chunks of diorite from Korpilahti. The jagged edges of the weighty rocks are contrasted against the overall minimalism of the work. The celestial elements engage in a continuous dialogue with their surroundings, blurring the line between the sculpture and reality.
The sculpture in the Helsinki Biennial forms part of the larger work, which will be placed on permanent display as a public artwork in Hyväntoivonpuisto Park in the Helsinki district of Jätkäsaari after 2021.
Photo 1: Matti Pyykkö/Helsinki Biennial 2021
Laura Könönen
No heaven up in the sky
2021
Painted Diorite
Commissioned by HAM/Helsinki Biennial 2021 and the City of Helsinki