"Shelter: Kaija Kiuru's Installations"
2002-09-20 until 2002-11-10
Rovaniemi Art Museum
Rovaniemi, , FI Finland

Through times women have decorated, built homes and created the spirit of home. Still eighty pec cents of worlds refugees are women and girls without home. Tent as their only shelter. This woke Kaija Kiuru to think the meaning of becoming homeless by necessity or by your own free will and on the other hand freedom to move and feel home in any place. The artist moves because of the nature of her work and always builds a home in a new exhibition place, the art work.

Kammio (Chamber 2002) is build from hand knitted lace and is extremely feminine and private shelter. In many cultures the value of women is measured by their skills in handcraft and only after girl has learnt these skills she enters in the world of cultural meanings. After thousands of hours of work in Kammio can be seen and sensed the whole quantity of womens everyday but also concealed world: pains from growing up, love, happiness of motherhood, rows, violence, shame, escape, abandoning and empty arms of an old woman. Even though fragile and light as a breath this womans breast shape shelter can be used as a shelter for journey.

The starting point for Majakka Lighthouse (2002) is the form which refers to home and stopping but also waiting and longing. The lighthouse shows light and gives shelter. The work is beautiful as ornament. The light from inside flows through the names of ships that has been cut out on the walls like the lived life would filter through walls. The memory and memories are crossing with illustrated suspenses. They give meaning and sense for the life. It is a symbolic space which has a relationship to the history and world of experiences of community and individual.

The meaning of space is physical including smell, touch and voices. The shelters of Kaija Kiuru are empty and silent mental spaces which bring longing and nostalgia. The shelters only refer to and that is why they are without cultural meanings. The shelters recycled materials as the army leftover blankets and old lace table cloths as well as artists handwork by connecting the parts together talk about life being lived. Open and transparent space with many dimensions and its remoteness creates closeness.

Related Links:

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