Kaisu Koivisto

http://www.kaisukoivisto.com
e-mail: kaisukk[at]yahoo.com

In her work Kaisu Koivisto incorporates different media and materials such as steel, leather, fur, bones and horns. Installations, photography, drawing, and video are integral aspects of her artistic practice. Koivisto's topics are often closely knitted with the materials she employs: waste materials produced by a society of excess. Her work involves the meticulous elaboration of materials and themes.

Kaisu Koivisto (b.1962) has studied at the University of Art and Design Helsinki (MFA). She has also studied art history and aesthetics at the University of Helsinki. She lives in Helsinki, Finland.

Kaisu Koivisto´s work have been shown for instance in the following institutions: Kiasma, Helsinki; Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid; PS 1, New York; Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia; Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, Galleria Sculptor, Helsinki; Pori Art Museum, Pori.

Artist’s statement

"My artistic practice spans sculptural elements and objects as well as photography, drawing and video. These diverse strands come together in the framework of installations.

I am interested in an ambivalent aesthetic, the simultaneity of attractiveness and repulsiveness, the synthetic and the organic, stark geometry and the ornamental. In my work there is usually a darker undercurrent to what at first appear to be innocuous subjects. The topics and materials which I focus on are symbolically charged: materials such as recycled leather and fur, bones, horns and other organic matter. They bear traces of wear and tear, thus indicating the passage of time.

The relationship between human beings and nature in all its forms, above all cultivated and restrained nature we encounter in cities, is often a starting point for me. I investigate complex visual structures combined with my ongoing interest in the structures and technologies humankind is able to imagine and build. Structures as means of organizing the society include such aspects as language, research and science, architecture and education."