Sara Bjarland(b. 1981) is a Helsinki-born artist currently based in Amsterdam. She works primarily with discarded items and materials that she finds in her urban surroundings, like broken or worn-out household items, furniture and dead plants.
By transforming these unwanted materials into sculptures, installations, photographs and textile works, Bjarland gives them new meanings and value. An element of care is also important, as her work is a way of caring for materials that would otherwise be destroyed.
Her work reflects on issues like the relationship between nature and culture, human behaviour and its impact on the environment and all living things.
Photo: Joke Schut
Sara Bjarland: Stranding, 2025. Helsinki Biennial 8.6.–21.9.2025, Vallisaari Island. Photo: HAM / Helsinki Biennial / Sonja Hyytiäinen
Stranding, 2025
Artwork location: Vallisaari Island
Bjarland approached Vallisaari Island as a natural refuge and recreational area that other species share with humans. Although swimming is not permitted for humans on the island, birds, otters and other non-human cohabitors are oblivious to the non-trespassing signs. Bjarland’s sculptural group on the rocky beach takes its shape from inflatable swimming toys. The toys imitating sea mammals are cast in bronze, locking them into a permanent condition of liminality. The half-inflated creatures are at once pitiful and cartoonishly amusing in their seemingly abandoned state.
Their silhouettes suggest a pod of stranded dolphins, the reason for which might be illness or human interference with their habitat, or a day at the beach that has inexplicably been suspended. The installation brings an ironic and playful twist to the ever-growing presence of plastic waste by transforming it into permanent sculptures that simultaneously pay homage to the creatures they mimic.
After its premiere at Helsinki Biennial 2025, Stranding will be installed as a permanent public artwork in Helsinki’s urban space.