Tapio Wirkkala: Utima Thule, 1967. via.
I suppose we are overdue an Architecture Corner - but not much going on that front so we'll have to cast our net a bit wider. Although only as far as Espoo it seems...
This week we visited EMMA (Espoo Museum of Modern Art) at WeeGee for an exhibition of the work of Finnish sculptor and product designer Tapio Wirkkala (1915-1985). He trod a strange path between sometimes figurative, sometimes abstract works and apparently unwilling to differentiate between his product work and sculptures. Much of his work - certainly his best known pieces - are in carved plywood (for which he used extremely high-quality birch plywood to his own specifications). 'Ultima Thule' (pictured above) which shares it's name with the Iittala glassware he also designed, is one of the centrepieces of the exhibition, although I actually liked the roughness of his studio doors more made from simple pieces of standard timber (unfortunately I couldn't find a picture on the web and we couldn't take photos). You can read more about him here and here.
Also in Espoo last night were RinneRadio (a jazz via hip-hop, electronica, straight fusion, dark dub, ambient, and Saami yoik singing experience since the late eighties) and Circo Aereo performing 'Ruostetta iholla' (rust on the skin). Featuring a RR backed choreographed acrobatic act with scaffolding, posture balls, planks, tyres, a trampoline and a suspended hoop... you can find video of their other shows on YouTube, but here is Ommatidi from RinneRadio.
3 comments:
I managed to catch circo aereo last summer. http://willielahti.blogspot.com/2009/07/jyvaskylan-kesa-jyvaskyla-summer.html
entertaining act. wirkkala's plywood art is nice to look at. his glass has been on so old aunties shelves that it reminds me of porcelain cats. don't even get me started on alvar "over-rated" aalto. once you are forced to crap in one of his University of Jyväskylä men's rooms you'll know what I am talking about. Wait, you didn't mention the pyhä lehmä at all, did you?
Re: Wirkkala - I generally found the more abstract / less figurative his work was the more satisfying it was for me. I'm sure developing and creating those glass birds was fantastically skillfull, but......
I'm probably going to mostly disagree with you on Aalto though - although equally not everything he / his office produced was perfect by any stretch of the imagination (Carrera marble cladding in Finland anyone?). And I know that one of the criticisms of his work is that it sometime compromises the functional parts to get the 'public' parts to meet his ideals. But when you see some of the disfunctional and derivative 'international style'/'brutalist' stuff perpetrated in UK contemporary to Aalto - well I know which I would choose.
touche. Aalto's treatment of Seinäjoki city center is pretty impressive, I must admit.
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