Honor the maggot,

supreme catalyst:

they spur the rate of change.*

O worm supreme is a group exhibition containing works from 29 different artists. The exhibition is curated by me and held in the forest of Tuo Tuo Kulttuuri Tila & Residency in Joutsa, Finland. The exhibition lasts for one year, and during this time the works will go trough an evolutionary transformation as they are exposed to the seasonal changes, microbes, bitter rains and fungal brutes.

The exhibition is open until August 2021.

Opening hours are Wed-Sun from 12-6 pm. Starting from October 2020 Wed-Sun from 12-4 pm.

Pertunmaantie 912, 19650 Joutsa.

www.tuotuoarts.com

*Edited from the poem Catalyst by A.R. Ammons.

Graphic design by Samuli Saarinen.

Opening drinks were sponsored by Hiisi beer.

Benjamin Nozdrachev

Cassette Facade

Side a - The alchemists billboard

Side b - The alchemists bedroom

Found material 2020

Cassette Facade takes a brief walk through a timeline of alchemy acting as a major influence on the history of human civilization. The alchemist, as an idea, is a manipulator of matter. Much like the artist. Both are searching and transforming material. Pushing plants and minerals into something unseen, opening new doors and questioning the nature of matter itself.

Kristian Palmu

Dweller,

Stubborn,

Melting in

Three layers of plastic on a hook

A puddle that reflects on distance and changes and lightens you up.

Lotta Blomberg

Kauko

Handwoven ryijy 2020

A memorial for the family cat.

Aura Latva-Somppi

Beat-hyönteisten pesäresidenssi // Beat-pollinators’ nest residence

Blacksmoked ceramics, milk coating 2020

All pollinators troubled with environmental challenges including habitat loss, non-native species and diseases, pollution, pesticides, and climate change, tired of endless work and the fruit of their labor grabbed by people, are welcome to this residence to gather, rest and celebrate.

J. Koho

From Helsinki to Joutsa by bicycle

All sound material for the piece was recorded on a bicycling trip from Helsinki to Joutsa at 26.8.2020. Piece was composed and mixed in Helsinki 28.8.2020.

From Helsinki to Joutsa is the first part of an ongoing project called “no unwanted noise” which mainly focuses on field recording and listening. It is also a personal study for searching ecologically sustainable ways to make art and to connect it with everyday life. Take a card from the glass jar to find the link to the sound piece.

Helen Korpak

Constellation 02

Found wood, thread 2020

For the sake of narratives, it bothers me slightly that I cannot pinpoint the exact year that has been the worst of my life. On the other hand, I also don’t know which has been the happiest year of my life, which I take to mean that happiness has been spread out and recurrent, just like the regularly returning periods of unhappiness. My ongoing series Constellations is an abstract map of these past zenits and nadirs. I create three dimensional structures based on the molecular models of various medications that have played a role in my continued survival. Constellations 02 is based on the formula of the drug I take for my epilepsy, and is made out of wood found in public places in Helsinki where I have cried over the course of the past 15 years.

Erika Hirsimäki

JUUSTONAKSUPANSSARI

Knitted and felted wool, human hair, dog hair and cat hair hand-stitched together. All hair and fur is cruelty free and found from rubbish. 2020

A shelter that helps one to prevent self destruction, calms you down, makes you think of something else than stressful life. JUUSTONAKSUPANSSARI is a self-help item. It is made for the purpose of its owner and it’s purpose will continue when it will be torn apart into soft pieces during the year in the forest, as it’ll be snacked on by the birds for making their nests out of the greasy bits of it. The piece will continue to grow into nests, we hope. Let’s have a snack and chill.

Riikka Hongisto

A laid-back ghost

Leftover cotton and linen fabrics sewn together and natural dyed with seaweed, tea and turmeric. Small stones tied in with cotton yarn.

The ghost felt dizzy but they loved it. It felt good to say no and do nothing for a change.

Judith Gebhardt

Gewebe

german, def. 1) Fabric made from cross-woven threads 2) Substance consisting of related cells with approximately the same structure and function

Plants, wood, lichen, cotton thread

A small woven fabric hangs from a birch tree - placed like a talisman on its neck - that grows bent down as if bowing to the forest. The handwoven textile is made of wildflower, grass, lichen and wood found in the gardens and forests of TUO TUO. The mediative weaving process led to a dialogue between nature and human crafts, location and material - exploring colors, texture, smell and haptics of the plants while these were joined as one.

Milla Aska

A weeper in the wind

Pigment and rabbit skin glue on canvas, clothespins 2020

Oksalla on käpertynyt kangas

varjo liimautuu osaksi sitä

Nyyhkytys tuntuu poskilla

tuulenvire nappaa sen mukaansa

Itkeminen tekee silmistä rusinoita.

Mietin tulevatkohan ötökät syömään maalausta

pysyyköhän se edes viikkoa oksalla

makaako se loput vuodesta maassa

ja sitten lopulta maatuu?

Maalaus ottaa metsän muodon:

aurinko haalistaa värejä, kosteus ja lämpö liottavat sitä

ja lopulta pigmentit palaavat takaisin kasveille

olennot ottavat kankaan kodikseen

tai niin ainakin toivon.

A wrinkled cloth hanging on a branch

shadows meld to be a part of it

My face raw with tears

lifted by the gentle breeze

Crying eyes are like prunes.

I wonder whether bugs will eat the painting

and whether it will even hang for a week

Will it lie on the forest floor for the rest of the year

and in time, decompose?

The painting takes on the shape of the forest:

it is discolored by the sun, humidity and heat tarnish it,

eventually the pigments return to the plants

and the fabric becomes home for all manner of creatures.

This is my wish.

Heikki Lotvonen

Late Night Thoughts

Dremel on found wood 2020

We desperately need the wood to be a bit of a mess for the late night thoughts. The first thing that needs to be done is to put the wood in the description of the work. Then the main point of the work has to be done in order for us to get the rewards.

Emil Lyytikkä

Deviation

2020

Long after the entity is gone the path will remember its existence.

Iina Esko

I will take care of you

Installation consisting of bedsheets and materials from nature. Poem on a print. 2020

I will take care of you

I squeeze you tight in my arms

I breathe in your scent

I wrap you gently, tightly

I want you to be a part of me

I will take care of you.

César Ropponen-Brunel

Untitled

Wood and string 2020

Sain otettua mukaan rinkkaani; sahan, vasaran, nauloja, pigmenttejä purkissa, kaksi liimapuristinta, vähän narua ja kahdet pihdit.

I took in my bag; a saw, a hammer, some nails, a pot of pigments, two clamps, a rope and two pliers.

Eva Lamppu

The picker

Embroidery on fabric 2020

The ”Picker” is a story of a woman who every now and then heads to the forest to harvest wild berries. Often just a small bowl of them. Bending over bushes, or crouching, she thinks many thoughts.

She especially likes the sourness of lingonberries.

Gladys Camilo

Nagual Forest

Clay sculptures and text stitched on naturally dyed cotton fabric. 2020

I began writing these kinds of descriptive and magical tales as a way to cope with my anxiety; to help me reconnect with my body and bring my mind back to a relaxed state.

This text is a tale between myself and the natural realm. A nagual is a shapeshifter, a spirit and an animal, connected to me and the forest.

Diana Pereyra

Roots to Beauty

Mixed media sculpture: Wood, shovel, strawberries 2020

The sculpture is made out of found objects, the berries that rooted over time showing how to preserve it and to take away stuff from its roots disrupts the pattern of life by the action of taking the berries from the forest and placing them on the sculpture and watching its natural decay over time.

The forest had worked its own beauty

The place had roots in its quiet display, its own structure

Its work, the work of the ecosystem, the display of all its labor.

The supreme sublime is found inside it

I thought I needed tools to find my roots in foreing lands.

El bosque había trabajado su propia belleza

El lugar tenía raíces en su callada muestra, su propia estructura

Su trabajo, el trabajo del ecosistema.

Pensé que necesitaba herramientas para buscar raíces en tierras ajenas.

Inka Kynkäänniemi

Untitled

Wood carving 2020

Karsikko markings for O W S.

Liina Aalto-Setälä

March of the slugs // Etanoiden marssi

Installation (modelling clay, wood, acrylics) 2020

For those who walk on this earth slowly, time is a never-ending struggle.

Toni Elg

Cumulus

This summer I was enjoying a bike ride through Kimitoön islands when a flock of cumulus clouds coloured the view with rapidly changing spots of light.

Anne Lehtelä

Piece of microdystopia // Kappale mikrodystopiaa

Deed of running // juoksu / teko August 2020 // elokuu 2020

The piece deals with micro level dystopia that humankind is spreading around.

The path has formed in the forest as a result of repeated consumption — running around the same line over and over again. Seemingly light and insignificant activities consume slowly renewable nature.

A similar phenomenon has been seen on a larger scale, for example, as the destruction of forest nature in connection with a major sporting event, such as Jukola and widening of marked routes in national parks as use increases. As the human nature relationship changes moving in nature has become a consuming exercise.

annelehtela.com

Teos käsittelee inhimillisen ympärilleen kylvävää mikrotason dystopiaa.

Metsäpohjaan on muodostunut toistuvan kulutuksen tuloksena polku. Näennäisesti kevyt ja merkityksetön toiminta kuluttaa hitaasti uusiutuvaa luontoa.

Samankaltainen ilmiö on isommassa mittakaavassa nähty esimerkiksi luonnon tuhoutumisena Jukolan viestin yhteydessä ja kansallispuistojen merkittyjen reittien leventymisenä käytön lisääntyessä. Luontosuhteen muuttuessa liikkuminen luonnossa on muuttunut kuluttavaksi suorittamiseksi.

annelehtela.com

Christine Valtonen

Mötikkä

Ceramics

The chunk that for one reason or another has ended up in the middle of nowhere.

Kati Peltola

Osmo

Fameworked borosilicate glass and twigs // liekkikuumennettu borosilikaattilasi, oksia 2020

Osmo used to be a ball of stress, but became an exercise of letting things go. Now it is floating in the forest freely, asking, how was your day?

Osmo oli ennen stressipallo, mutta muuntui irtipäästämisen ihmiskokeeksi. Nyt se liehuu metsässä vapaana, kysyen, kuinka sinun päiväsi on mennyt?

Frans Nybacka

Secure wall

2020

...and Guardians of Safety

Eeva Lietonen

Sv. L

Cotton and wood

Someone to watch over you.

Julio Lugon

The Lair Guardian

Scrap wood, paint, pine tar 2020

The Lair Guardian is a wooden entity bearing the marks of old age.

It has large arms and two tree antennae on its head that channel the wisdom of ancient techniques for the protection of souls.

Although its decorated parts have been and will continue to be marked by the passage of time, this does nothing more than protect the lair, a psychedelic lair that is visited by both humans and other beings that inhabit the dreams of dwellings.

This wooden guardian preserves the greatest accomplishments of those that came before and the ones that will follow.

Elina Laitinen

I’ve started to forget things // Olen alkanut unohtaa asioita

Installation consisting two dresses,textiles and wild flowers // Installaatio, jossa kaksi mekkoa, tekstiilejä ja luonnonkukkia

Grandma and grandma’s modesty. Forgetting and becoming forgotten. What things are worth remembering?

Mummo ja mummolan vaatimattomuus. Unohtaminen ja unohdetuksi tuleminen. Mitkä asiat ovat muistamisen arvoisia?

Essi Nieminen

Jammy Fungi // Mukavat sienet

Wood // Puu 2020

These jamming mushrooms are in symbiosis with you, among all the other well-behaving forest guests. Nothing can stop them from grooving - even the cold winter. It has been said that jamming with Jammy fungi brings good luck! Why don’t you give it a try?

Nämä jammailevat sienet ovat symbioosissa sinun ja muiden näyttelyvieraiden kanssa. Niiden menoa ei pysäytä mikään - ei edes kylmä talvi. On huhuttu, että Mukavien sienten kanssa jammailu tuottaa onnea! Miksipä et kokeilisi...?

Anna Niskanen

Piece of Old Sky

Cyanotype on silk 2020

If it is cloudy, but there is an opening of blue sky on the horizon, my grandfather would say: “there is a piece of old sky showing”. I have exposed a montaged photograph of care-free looking sky onto fabric, and the piece will be exhibited high above the ground to be viewed from below and studied in comparison with the real sky.