Sari Palosaari’s art plays with the virtual and tangible, scale and temporal distances, while creating dialogues between the space, viewer and objects. For Helsinki Biennial Sari Palosaari creates a new work contemplating the notion of land, the earth and its crust below our feet.
Sari Palosaari (b. 1974) is a Helsinki based artist who has exhibited her works widely across Europe and abroad. She works with sculptural installations, performative objects and moving image. Whilst playing with the virtual and tangible, scale and temporal distances, she creates dialogues between the space, viewer and objects. The works often include durational processes generated by chemicals or sensor technics, i.a she injects soundless cracking agent, so called snail dynamite, into a rock that triggers it to slowly crack under the pressure throughout the duration of the exhibition.
Sari Palosaari: Eons and Instants, 2021 ©Maija Toivanen/HAM/Helsinki Biennial 2021
Eons and Instants, 2021
For Helsinki Biennial Sari Palosaari creates a new work contemplating on the notions of land, the earth and its crust below our feet. The echoes of the location’s history, as part of the military defence system, entangle with those of the future — the growing need to mine minerals that make the modern life work and support the shift to electric mobility.
The installation consists of objects placed on, next to, or supporting the metal planes that constitute the space. The rocks, collected from the island, are loaded with mineral powders and soundless cracking agent.
Other objects, such as nutrient pills, connect with the entanglements of our bodies and cultures with the Earth´s crust and minerals. The inner forces of the rocks and the loaded materials, as well as the moist and temperature of the air in the room, impact each other and will autonomously continue to transform the work.
Photo 1: Matti Pyykkö/Helsinki Biennial 2021
Sari Palosaari
Eons and Instants
2021
Rocks, rock dust, snail dynamite, cobalt (CoO & Co-Al-Zn), spodumene, zink acetate, copper carbonate, brass, steel
Commissioned by HAM/Helsinki Biennial 2021