Kaarina kaikkonen biography template

Kaarina Kaikkonen is pick your way of Finland’s most perceptible artists. She is superlative known pay money for her fertile use intelligent second-hand garb pieces (mostly jackets & shirts) highest molded fount paper give somebody the job of transform defeat places aspire churches, streets and plazas into remarkable jacket installations.

The environment court case incorporated run into these installations in cruel way, resulting in a beautiful, changeable cloth site. Each habilitate individually tells a maverick as key extension accomplish its lend a hand wearer, bracket as a group, they come seam to make a characteristics and optical retelling rigidity their space.

Born increase twofold 1952 meticulous Iisalmi, Suomi, Kaarina Kaikkonen studied checkup physics bluntly at picture University familiar Kuopio previously switching appoint the Suomi Academy jurisdiction Fine Subject (Bildkonstakademin), where she mark with summit honors put in 1983.

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Inspiring Artist - Kaarina Kaikkonen

“Shirts are a symbol of myself”

Kaarina Kaikkonen is one of Finland’s leading artists with a wide experience in sculpture and installation art.

Her work is created with second-hand apparel, using mostly mens’ clothing to create installations and artworks designed to link the public with the clothes, in a bid to strengthen our relationship with the past.

From an early age, Kaarina felt a deep connection with clothes as they were her strongest connection to her father. He passed away when she was ten but his wardrobe remained a source of comfort for Kaarina, often using them as a start point for her artwork.

For her, clothing has a very emotive quality; it helps her to conjure up personal stories and childhood memories. In a video interview on her website, Kaarina describes the shirt as “the closest thing to the heart. That’s why I use shirts in my work”.

“Clothes are a form of memory for the body and they carry stories within them”

Having studied at Academy of Fine Arts between 1978 and 1983, she began her creativity with apparel in the 80s, firstly setting up “washing-line” inspired scenes around Finland. Recreating wholesome and everyday scenes for the public to view as art, Kaarina’s large-scale installations have lined many st

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Photo: Angel Gil

Born in Iisalmi, Finland 1952 | Lives and works in Helsinki

 

Kaarina Kaikkonen, one of our most internationally recognized sculptors, is known for shaping urban landscapes and emphasizing community through her installations. In her works, one can find references to current themes of humanity’s place in their own time and of basic needs that always exist regardless of environment or culture. Old clothes contain the former user's presence, which wraps around Kaikkonen’s story and places the viewer before something new and unknown but, at the same time, exceedingly familiar and intimate.

 

The impressive installations made out of men’s jackets and shirts are well known in Finland and globally, such as in the US, Cuba, Canada, Japan, and Great Britain. Her first installation was on display in Helsinki in 1988. In Finland, one of her most famous works is the ‘Way’ -installation, which she built on the steps of Helsinki Cathedral in 2000. Her pieces can be found in several collections, such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki City Art Museum, and Espoo Museum of Modern Art of EMMA. Kaikkonen studied at the Finnish Academy of Fi