Antti Laitinen
Coalescing with Nature
Through September 30, 2023
Antti Laitinen reconceives coalescing with nature through his manipulations of the Earth's materials. The artist, in his latest online exhibition with Zarastro Art, sparks an inquisitive ecological dialog with an expanded audience around the globe.
Sculptures that disassemble trees into their core components, photographs that alter the reality of wooded environments, and performances that investigate how we interact with nature coalesce into a visualization of the relationship between humanity and our planet, a strained coexistence where we often forget we are inextricably linked.
Meet the Artist
Career Highlights
Major Solo & Group Shows
GSA Gallery, Venice Biennial, Galerie Anhava, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art
Institutional Collections
HAM, Kiasma Museum, ArtCenter, Saastamoinen Foundation,
Selected Reviews
Art19, Artforum, Nordic Art Review
Kulttuuritoimitus
Themes
Connection to nature, Personal endurance, Ecological crisis,
Environmental art, Land art
Medium
Photography
Installation
Sculpture
Performance
Video
Through a collection of Laitinen’s photographs, videos, and sculptural work which showcase his conceptual, performative, and site-specific practice, this exhibition manifests the simultaneous fortitude and fragility of nature as the artist dismantles terrestrial elements into new forms. Embarking on seemingly absurd tasks, Laitinen creates visions of the impossible that leave viewers questioning whether these formations were constructed by the artist himself or merely a peculiar natural phenomenon.
A series of Laitinen's photographic prints expose the intersection of sculpture, performance, site-specific installation, and documentation that has become fundamental to the artist’s process-driven practice. Cycles of renewal and decay permeate these works as the artist simultaneously reinterprets trees and the materials of his practice while somehow maintaining their essence and original appearance.
Broken Landscape
Laitinen’s
“Broken Landscape”
series transforms trees through
his sculptural interventions that come
to life as surreal reimaginings
of the environment.
I thought that it would be nice to kind of break nature apart, but you can't really take nature apart because it is not like a ‘lego’. If I take it apart and then start to put it back together, what is the result? I think sometimes the process is quite interesting.
Antti Laitinen
Green Square, Brown Square, White Square
Ravished by time, we witness the relationship between nature and the seasons in sculptures assembled from organic found materials within Laitinen’s “Green Square”, “Brown Square”, and “White Square” prints.
Green Square, Brown Square, White Square
Growler
Text Animation
The looming presence of global
warming becomes inescapable as we
view “Growler”. Laitinen
investigates notions of loss within
our ecosystem as he returns to the
sea his own miniature iceberg.
The looming presence of global
warming becomes inescapable as we
view “Growler”. Laitinen
investigates notions of loss within
our ecosystem as he returns to the
sea his own miniature iceberg.
warming becomes inescapable as we
view “Growler”. Laitinen
investigates notions of loss within
our ecosystem as he returns to the
sea his own miniature iceberg.
Nature in Motion
Complementing these images and sculptural pieces are three performances exhibited as videos. Imbued with an undeniable sense of humor, Laitinen reveals the process alongside the final work of art. Viewers observe the manual, physical and laborious nature of conforming the land to the artist’s actions and its defiance as the natural elements tumultuously reassemble.
As Laitinen reveals his distinctive artistic process of deconstructing and reassembling, viewers are confronted by the absurdity of the inherent human impulses to tame the natural world. Viewing these works from the liminal realms, he constructs, we are left questioning: how far will humanity go to achieve its impossible and often destructive desires?
About The Artist
Antti Laitinen is a multidisciplinary artist transcending the mediums of sculpture, performance, installation, photography, and video in works that question the relationship between nature and humanity. Currently living and working in Finland, the artist is a graduate of the Turku Arts Academy, where he achieved his Bachelor’s in Photography, and Finish Academy of Fine Arts, where he obtained his Masters of Fine Arts. An internationally acclaimed visual artist, Laitinen is included in esteemed collections around the world. He has exhibited and performed extensively with museums and galleries, and received numerous honors including his participation in the 2013 Venice Biennale.
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