The exhibition Saline Binds brings together works by two Helsinki-based artists, Man Yau and Eetu Sihvonen. Although both artists are exhibiting works stemming from their individual and distinct practices, presenting very different artistic expressions, they also share a similar sensibility and a strong focus on material in their storytelling.

Man Yau’s work often takes a closer look at distinct cultural contexts and examines these through her own experience as a woman and a BIPOC artist. For example, her work addresses issues like exoticisation, the patriarchal gaze and the subsequent expectations of performativity. Yau counters these processes and resulting structures of power through creating artefacts that combine cultural analysis, personal experiences and are able to stand against stereotyping.

For Saline Binds, Yau has created a series of sculptures that become a convergence point for multiple and simultaneous cultural, social and individual identities – but also placing them in the lineage of art histories that have not been historically offered a central position. These include elements of an outfit – a cowboy hat made of glass, porcelain parts bound into a protective jacket, intricately patterned cast bronze chopine heels, and ceramic hunting elements. The items are extravagant, eclectic and performative – protective and empowering but ultimately heavy on the body of the wearer. The tension between the body and its covers is further made visible through colourful chinoiserie patterns, elements of intrusive hands and motifs of crying eyes and tears. For Yau, this carries the complexities of performativity and femme power.

Eetu Sihvonen’s work presents a strange world with a cast of peculiar characters – Bruegel like scenes in surreal humour. Inspired by the utopia of Cockaigne, an imaginary world of ease and abundance that stood in opposition to the harshness of medieval peasant life filled with labour and scarcity. So, the world Sihvonen constructs through their artworks is not one of godly splendour or high-class luxury but rather hails from a more down-to-earth utopia, regardless of presenting elements of fantasy and wonder.

Wall pieces presented at Saline Binds add to Sihvonen’s world of oddities. Here the scenes are contained in drops of water – a single tear encompasses a whole world – held by wooden structures. The 3D printed tableaus include a delicate cast of characters, intricate patterns and architectural ornamentation, linking the works to the fantasy genre. Referencing a somewhat archaic world, the materials and techniques Sihvonen uses, are combined in a way that evokes both the past and a very contemporary mode of working – 3D printed objects stand alongside hand-carved pieces. This might make the viewer consider the role of an artisan, someone who makes with their hands and has expert knowledge – could a craftsman also mean a master of digital objects or is there a perceived hierarchy between the two? And what would a contemporary workers’ utopia look like for these  tradesmen?

At a glance, the artistic practices of Yau and Sihvonen seem very different, however, they both are invested in similar sensibilities, themes or approaches. In Saline Binds, among these, abundance, focus on narrative and  experimenting with material stand out.

Abundance, however, is not aspirational in itself for either of the artists – although they both have a rich visual and material language, that richness is in service or personal and cultural expression and narrative. From the times of William Morris, the idea of masterful and exquisite (and therefore luxurious) craft has been linked to questions of social class, availability and accessibility. In their work, too, Yau and Sihvonen think through material and view it as representative of distinct  representation of cultural and social markers. And this, in turn, allows them to create playful narratives around the objects they have crafted, or leave the task to the viewer, left wondering about the experiences of the characters and creatures the works evoke. In the end though, at the convergence point of everything, stands the body not unlike our own – blood, sweat,  tears and all – living and soiling itself and the material around it with its salty liquids, aspiring towards unbound horizons.

— Keiu Krikmann