Timo Peri
Kotka (1959)
The discoverer of art
Timo Peri sees creativity as recombining existing things. He calls himself a discoverer of art and an ITE architect. He finds art in everyday objects and presents it as recycled art. Timo always sees something beautiful in old wooden logs, planks and scrap iron, which always finds a suitable place with time. sanookin leikkisästi näkevänsä saattohoidossa olevissa puupölleissä, lankuissa ja rautaromussa aina jotain kaunista, jolle ajan kanssa löytyy aina sopiva paikka.
Creative play
Timo Peri is largely known for the Timo Teippi advertising company he created, which he headed in 1983-2018. On his 60th birthday, he promised his friends that he would spend the rest of his life playing. Works were already created in addition to business activities, but after working life he finally had time to devote himself completely to creative play.
Timo Per’s artistic philosophy is based on the idea that creativity arises from combining existing things in a new way. He calls himself an art discoverer who looks at the world around him from a different perspective and sees the potential of art in places and objects that many might consider meaningless or unusable.
Timo Peri’s art is not only limited to his works, but is manifested in his life comprehensively. Timo and his wife Terhi Kunelius converted an old barn into the premises of Timo Teippi Oy, where the company still operates. The old barn became a space that is a kind of work of art in itself. The barn is full of inventive and special solutions that speak of his creativity and ability to see art in old objects and materials. The same applies to their “forest home”, which is located in the middle of the forest in the middle of a yard built on a logging area. Metsäkoti is full of individual buildings and spaces, such as a smoke sauna, a bridal chamber and a woodworking chamber, all of which show Peri’s ability to give new life to old materials.
The handprint of Peri’s recycling art also extends to large public spaces. His most famous work is probably the landmark formed by 117 metallic palm trees rising along the E18 highway in Pyhtää, which has become familiar to passers-by and received a lot of attention.
Timo Peri's wooden figures
However, Timo Peri’s favorite form of art is probably the wooden figures created from recycled materials, of which Timo’s workshop has produced a huge number. The wooden figures are full of funny insight that will make the viewer smile. The unique style of the wooden figures often arises from the natural shapes of the wood, to which Peri has added inventive details, such as old railway sleeper nails or other objects that get a new life as part of the work of art.
Impressive. Can move stones, shape land, plant, join pieces, combine different materials... Can make buildings... Art... But a person who makes thoughts change to others changes something bigger. When the thought of the viewer, perceiver, experiencer or participant changes - the future changes too. The effect can be unpredictable.
