Stone Slabs

Photo: Ville Virtanen

In my own artistic work I utilize the historical usage of stone-text-plates and seek to develop a contribution to the contemporary art discourse by carving texts, words and imagery in stone. Stone-text-plates have been used for thousands of years across cultures and geographies.

I apply a critical archaeological point of view on stone-text-plates, that considers aspects of evanescence, fragmentariness and the awareness, that there is no claim of completeness.

Historically the content of stone-text-plates (as for sculpture) was often based on educational aims, like demonstration of power, informing the illiterates or dissemination of information in general, made for good or ill. I apply an imagined indefinite future archaeological point of view on our society. The artifacts I produce therefor would somehow never exist in this way, as with very few exceptions, we today hardly see the need in communicating information on stone. It is an imaginary story that I make up, as part of my concept and with which I intend to explore how words, texts and images carved onto stone develop meanings and narratives for us about us today.

In a time in which the lifespan of daily messages is very short I work with messages in stone, the often considered “eternal”. I am not especially fond of the word eternal in this context, but I must admit, that it does help supporting my concept, as it historically brings in aspects of importance and insignificance and carries therefor awareness of decision-making structures and its reasoning. By working with the material stone in a slow technique I try to open a window, by decelerating, to a more conscious present moment.

Several stone slabs have been shown in Finland and abroad. The presentation is always drafted for the certain space. It varies from puristic hangings on walls to specially welded steel racks and colour framings.

Photo credits: Ville Virtanen, Frank Brümmel, Pasi Rauhala