Deceleration

Deceleration is a joint exhibition by two Helsinki based sculptors, Timo Heino and Kaisu Koivisto. Since the late 1980s, Heino and Koivisto have been forerunners in Finland in multi-material artistic practice. It has since been associated with the concept of new materialism. Central to this is an interest in the intertwining of human and non-human matter and the co-formation of meanings and materiality. Concern about environmental crises and humanity’s chances of survival in the vortex of ever-accelerating changes constitute the underlying tone of the exhibition.

Timo Heino considers his sculptures as collages and spatial works, creating assemblages and combinations of objects from different ingredients. Heino combines both natural materials and synthetic hi-tech materials in unexpected ways. Patinated nostalgia intertwines with today’s synthetic reality as a kind of parallel reality — the past embraces the present. The materials chosen by Heino have already lived in different times, in different contexts, with different purposes and the accumulation of diverse meanings, even before he incorporates them into his works. He regards his works as three-dimensional slow-motion images in the circulation of the material world. As such, they are also subject to continuous further shaping.

Kaisu Koivisto focuses on sculptures and photographs. She works in dialogue with locations and materials: these bring forth the topics of her works. For her, the materials are documents that tell about human activity and changing values. At the same time, the previous uses and phases of recycled materials become part of the sculptures. Photography opens up further methods for Koivisto to explore materials and the way the passage of time is visible in them. The processes of slow decay or growth are at the core of her photographs, both in views of glaciers and icebergs, and in works depicting abandoned factories. Production plants that manufactured consumer goods crumble into post-industrial silence under the influence of natural forces.

Heino and Koivisto are united by an interest in temporal elements inherent in materials, and place-specificity where spaces and places serve as central starting points for the construction of their works. In Gallery Vanha Kappalaisentalo, the history of the building can be sensed in many ways. The exhibition space is a stone house built in the early 1760s, which already contains historical layers from the past centuries. An important aspect about the space for Heino and Koivisto is also its intimacy. In addition, the location of the house in the middle of the Old Porvoo historical milieu provides an interesting time continuum wider than the exhibition space and the building itself. This historical continuum and temporal processes of different durations are complemented by the materials in Heino’s and Koivisto’s works which range from natural materials to photographs and the latest hi-tech materials.

The exhibition has been generously supported by Greta and Alfred Runeberg Foundation and the Finnish Cultural Foundation.