Pia Sirén: The Path

in the morning light is green
a path opens before you
and closes behind
and you’re here among it all
alone till you stop being
among it all
and begin to be

– Kai Nieminen, Fuuga, 1992
(translation Herbert Lomas)

Pia Sirén produces landscape images through unconventional means: she sculpts them into large-scale, spatial entities using scaffolding, tarpaulins, and plastics. Instead of traditional art objects, the focus is on actions and the creation of experiences. The aesthetics of construction sites and their materials emphasize temporariness and point to change, functionality, and labor—clearly something is under construction here, but what? Tarpaulins are often used for covering and camouflage, which is why they are made in natural tones. However, landscape and nature enter into a tense relationship with the industrial plastics and aluminum scaffolding. Perhaps it is precisely the complexity and ordinariness of these materials that enable the works’ painterly quality and even unexpected beauty.

At the Turku Art Museum, Sirén continues her exploration of structures related to the concepts of nature and landscape. The world around us is increasingly shaped by human hands, and nature is often seen as a resource or a backdrop for human activity. In the Path constructed in the Studio, humans do not place themselves above other species but alongside them as equals. The work literally sets the forest on stage and raises questions about our identity in relation to the surrounding natural world. The hymn of a forest choir, composed of trees, shrubs, and stones, invites us to pause and listen. At the same time, the viewer wandering along the forest path becomes part of the work.

Pia Sirén (b. 1982) is a sculptor who works with site-specific spatial installations, constructing experiences of nature primarily from various building and gardening materials. Her works are temporary and ephemeral; they are preserved in visitors’ memories and photographs, and after exhibitions the materials are returned to construction companies and the artist’s storage. Sirén graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 2012, and her works have been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Finland and abroad. Last autumn, her largest project to date, Bic Botanic, was presented in Rauma, and this summer her works will also be on view in Fiskars and in Fortress of Suomenlinna. Sirén lives and works in Loviisa.

The exhibition is supported by the Finnish Heritage Agency, the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland.