“Primarily I went on to explore the habitat of beavers: the dams and nests built and ended up imitating them. I have created a nest, where I use both blocks chewed by beavers and similar ones made by me. However, the now golden Gerridae lead us to think that something is not quite right.

This whimsicalness and unanswered questions are somewhat typical within my work. Gold is seen valuable, but the golden Gerridae are some kind of mutation.

In my work, I give reverence to all living creatures to which my work refers to: beavers, the Gerridae, butterflies and children. I try to convey them and they, in fact, through rather small matters.

I point out the little things from which I have found meaning. On the other hand, I play with mixing different matters, which are connected to perception and how perceptions and observations are blended in our minds. For example, Relic was created in this way. The stars have transferred from the sky, through pony’s hair, to beavers’ surplus block which I value. In these blocks there is also something unintentional. Beavers create some excess material which they don’t use – the irrationality of these blocks and the effort put into them can be perplexing.

Relic 2 is a copy of an arrangement formed by nature and beavers: a tree stump, moss and plants. The mushrooms grew freely and by coincidence on it.

Many of my works are related to hope and despair (desolation and consolation) and therefore I decided to create Wishing Well. I remember seeing one as a child, although I don’t recall where. For some reason, it has haunted my mind and because of that, I wanted to make an art piece out of it. Its’ dark waters remind me of the spring in a forest nearby, where I often visited. Now the forest has been cut down, as often happens.”

Sculptor Riitta Kopra (b. 1982) lives and works in the countryside of Hämeenlinna, Renko. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki in 2016. Kopra has held private exhibitions and participated in group shows in both Finland and abroad since 2011.

Essential to Kopra’s work is certain absoluteness and physicality. Her art is often large-scale and requires numerous different phases in its’ creation. In the end the medium, material or technique become secondary: the artwork is present – tightly connected to the surrounding nature, feet firmly on the ground.

The exhibition has been supported by Arts Promotion Centre Finland.

The artist will be present at the gallery on Sunday, 25.4.2021 at 2–4pm.