Long Live Nature

Painter Sanna Kananoja’s twelve-painting collection Seikkailukivi ystävineen (Fin. Adventure Stone and Friends) was installed on the walls of Kontio School’s new lobby/cafeteria. In previous years, paintings have become rarer in the city’s percent for art commissions. The previous painting commission was made in 2010, when Outi Pieski created an art installation in the Vesala multifunctional community centre.

Sanna Kananoja’s Seikkailukivi ystävineen is a love letter to local nature and its unsung elements, stones and boulders, which are the insurmountable elders of Finnish nature – the oldest things found in the landscape. Our bedrock is more-or-less two thousand million years old. The rocks painted with acrylics onto Kananoja’s cut MDF boards are filled with life and all things organic; forest plants, moss, lichen, and fungi. The most abundant painting is found by the cafeteria’s dish return area – it is an apt location for the piece, since the basis of Earth’s food production is plants.

Seikkailukivi ystävineen is Sanna Kananoja’s first public art commission in Oulu. Kananoja graduated as a painter from Turku Art Academy in 2010 and she currently works at Hiukkavaara’s K2 Artist House.

BLUE ISLAND IS A LIVING PLANT ARTWORK

The other new percent for artwork, Blue Island (Sininen saari), is quite unique in its implementation. Painter and gardener Urho Kähkönen planted over 4 600 plants, different perennials, bulbs, and special trees during the summer and early fall onto a green artwork outside of Oulu Central Library Saari. Kähkönen’s living plant artwork is located in front of the facade facing the city centre. It is a viewing garden that can be observed from outside the garden plot. It is not possible to walk among the plants.

Blue Island was inspired by its location and Oulu’s coastal character. The living plan artwork consists of a “sea” of ground plants and an island surrounded by little islets. Urho Kähkönen considered the four seasons in the design of the piece. In the spring, the piece looks stripped down until a new season of growth begins. The artwork is at its greenest right before winter comes.

Blue Island is Urho Kähkönen’s first public commission in Oulu. Kähkönen lives in Northern Kuhmo and his private garden by Kostamustie includes gardens for perennials and roses, a greenhouse with potted plants, and a tree park. The one-hectare park is filled with well-attended greenery. The park area won Kainuu’s regional Vuoden maisemateko gardening competition in 2015.