The work, entitled Near the Moon, the Firmament and the Stars, consists of two totemic sculptural figures. The pillar-like part of the figures is made of tarred shingles carved from pine heartwood. At the top of the pillars are sculpted heads of male and female moose made of steel, steel mesh and willow.
The work carries a message from the days of rock paintings and Stone Age elk head sculptures – from the world of myths, belief in the supernatural and folklore. In Finnish folk poetry, the moose was a sacred animal born in the sky, whose original home was the heavens above us. In modern times, Finland’s largest mammal can also be a power animal, representing sustainability and nobility, or nature and the forest itself. The artwork reminds us of our role as an inseparable part of the animal kingdom, developed from the first cell and made of the same elements.
The tarred shingles used in the artwork are a reminder of the once flourishing tar trade culture. Oulu’s outer harbour and tar yard, where tar transported down the river from Kainuu was stored and loaded onto sailing ships until the tar trade declined in the late 19th century, was located near the new park area in Toppilansalmi.
The sculpture will be completed for the Housing Fair in 2025.
Jenni Tieaho (1969-), a sculptor and environmental artist from Siuntio, has been creating large-scale sculptures from natural materials such as wild willow, birch bark and plant parts since 1997. Tieaho’s work is part of the environmental and ecological art movement of recent years and decades.