Pia Jokinen
Nurmijärvi (1969)
Art from tree branches
ITE artist Pia Jokinen creates art from natural materials that delights and amuses and above all promotes sustainable development. In her works, Pia uses twigs from fallen trees as well as blueberry sprigs, moss, lichen, etc. Pia also organizes courses in her garden, where works are made from tree branches. Pia’s main job is conjuring up delicacies as an entrepreneur in her Leivonsulle home bakery in Nurmijärvi’s Palojoki.
”The world is drowning in garbage”
Pia Jokinen wants to use materials found in nature, because she feels that “the world is drowning in garbage”.
Pia has been collecting natural materials and creating unique works for a long time. The works, which he calls “orcs”, have in his hands a nature-friendly life and a soulful personal expression from the materials that nature offers. And in time, the orcs will gently return to the cycle of nature. Pia believes that the material found in nature brings authenticity to the works, which a world drowning in garbage needs.
Soon, the works combine jaggedness and sensitivity into a love of fringes.
A frequently recurring element in the works is the heart, which has been an important symbol for Pia Jokinen since her school days. He says that already in his school years, the “i” in the word Pia took shape as a heart. This symbol embodies warmth and love.
The works of the exhibition
Metsän Örkit Tapio, Impi ja Pikku Maa
The work features Tapio, Impi and Pikku Maa – the forest Orcs. Tapio and Impi are based on Finnish folklore and also appear in Aleksis Kivi’s Metsämiehen song. Tapio, the lord of the forest, and the gentle forest Impi hold hands with Pikku Maa, reminding us how we should protect and respect nature with the same wisdom as the forest spirits.
The twigs used in the work come from a hundred-year-old birch tree that had reached the end of its life. In the work, the birch tree is given a new life in the figures of the forest Orcs. This reuse of the material also highlights the artist’s own view of matter.
