A range is the distance that a vehicle, device or system is capable of reaching. The sculptures on display in the exhibition combine everyday furniture such as rocking chairs and folding tables with parts of aeroplanes and cars.
The sculptures explore the concept of reach as a search for and support of balance, but also as ideas of distance between things or beings. One of the vehicles in the exhibition, a helicopter balanced on its pedestal, looks as if it has been detached from an amusement park ride. Inside the helicopter, behind the dim windows, the veranda of a childhood wooden house glimmers. The exhibition is full of references to childhood and home. But the warm, safe light shining from inside the vehicles contrasts with the greyness of the outside.
The sculptures convey the limitations of the environment and of human capacity. The works are on the borderline between devotion and oppressiveness, but also playful and humorous, as in the case of the tail of an aeroplane that has crashed into a high chair.
The works are made by sawing, planing, grinding and sanding, using materials such as old birch plywood shelves from flea markets. Silicone moulds have been made from tile kiln tiles, small cars and tree trunks from the central park and have been moulded with materials ranging from resins to concrete. Over the course of two years, the items have been endlessly lifted and carried back and forth.
The works in the exhibition are like reaching the end of a journey. Range can also mean the distance travelled by a sound, a message or an idea. The sculptures act as vehicles, offering the viewer the opportunity to mirror their own thoughts and memories.
The artistic work for the exhibition has been supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
Antti-Ville Reinikainen (b.1980) is a visual artist living and working in Helsinki. He works with mixed methods of sculpture, sometimes combining them with painting and video art, for example. Reinikainen’s artworks can be found in the collections of the National Gallery, Turku Art Museum, Tampere Art Museum, Saastamoinen Foundation and Borås Konstmuseum. The Forum Box exhibition is his 22nd solo show.
Mediabox