Stone Slabs

Photo: Ville Virtanen

Stone slabs are a serial of stone slabs with carved texts and ornaments. In the polished works the stone is first cut and then polished. Afterwards the words and ornaments are drawn onto the surface. Then the carving by hand starts. There is not any particular theme or guideline in the beginning. The works originate in the working process and the selection of words and ornaments are done meanwhile. At a certain stage the works enter a balancing act between the abstract and the definite.

“What I make is a contemporary depiction of the world, as I see it. I am interested in the continuous shifting semantic levels of facts and things. I work in stone, granite and limestone. I carve texts and ornaments out of stone slabs. In this way, I am a descendent of a many hundreds of years old tradition of story telling and history writing by stone carving. 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 a big fan of this word, but it does help supporting my works. So what I do is conceptionally using the historical usage of text-stone-plates. This fundament gives me the freedom to do my work.”

Jyrki Siukonen writes in the Mänttä exhibition catalogue about Frank Brümmels exhibited stone slabs: “What Brümmel means is an already genuinely difficult story and I cannot really give helps. I look at the work and I am conveniently puzzled and do accept this. By looking for an exact purpose, we in fact can make a mistake to think that the exact purpose exists. And then we are in the trap. Not in one, that the artist has built, but in a self done. ”

(“Mitä Brümmel tarkoittaa on jo aidosti kiperä juttu, Enkä osaa antaa juurikaan apuja. Katson teosta ja olen sopivasti ymmällä, mutta en pistä sitä pahakseni. Etsimällä täsmällistä tarkoitusta voimme näet erehtyä luulemaan, että täsmällinen tarkoitus on olemassa. Ja silloin olemme ansassa, ei suinkaan taiteilijan rakentamassa vaan itse tehdyssä. ”)

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