In Kiiminki’s Alakylä, a new wooden school building will soon replace Alakylä School Building A, which burnt down in June 2020. Architect Antti Karsikas of Alt Arkkitehdit Oy is responsible for the main design of the project.
The new section, due to be completed in the summer of 2025, will feature a painting by Sanna Kananoja called Adventure Stone and Friends. The multi-part work, painted in acrylic on cut MDF panels, is hung on the walls of the school’s high and bright dining room.
According to Kananoja, the work is based on children’s play in the local nature. Large and small stones, twigs, branches, cones and plants attract all kinds of activity. The stones are not only incredibly old, but also unique in colour, shape, vegetation and other organic inhabitants. Sanna Kananoja describes Adventure Stone and Friends as a collection of portraits of wise old beings.
Sanna Kananoja (b. 1979) is a painter who works at the K2 artists’ house in Hiukkavaara, Oulu and focuses on nature and landscape. In her work, she often explores the everyday and taken-for-granted local nature.
Kananoja, who graduated from the Turku Academy of Fine Arts in 2010, has previously created public commissions for Turku’s Majakka Hospital (2021) and a kindergarten in Laitila (2020).