Fiskars Village

While in Finland, I visited Fiskars Village.



It's very picturesque. It's also the ancestral home of Fiskars Ironworks. You know, the scissors.



When Fiskars needed more room and moved out, the artisan squatters arrived.


This guy is working in the forge and that machine is a 'pounding stamper' (that's a davername) it must be to blacksmiths what the electric rolling mills are to jewellers.

The village is full of artist's studios, craft shops and galleries. It's an hour and a half from Helsinki and it's very beautiful and seemingly very well run and everything is of an extremely high standard. I was really impressed by the 2 group shows that were on in the two big galleries: 'Points of View' at the Copper Smithy and 'Transparent' at the Granary.


The Copper Smithy


The Granary

A work that really caught my eye was a collaboration between Hilary Pfeifer and Christian Bannister. It was exhibited in 'Points of View'. Hilary Pfeifer came to Fiskars as an artist-in-residence and brought with her a selection of music on her iPod, chosen for her by Christian Bannister, to listen to while she worked. This was the result...



It's a section of a long wall work and unfortunately the image doesn't reproduce the colours well. When she returned home she gave the piece to Christian because she "wanted to hear what it sounded like". Christian then created a sound work as a response to Hilary's wall work and she then made another series of objects as a response to his second recording.



Both recordings could be heard on headphones near the artworks. I love collaborations, particularly when artists respond to each others work.

I also saw this fantastic product in one of the shops...


porcelain milk jugs! (sorry, I couldn't find the name of the designer)

And here are some close ups of the old mill which is constructed from 'slag bricks' I guess they're a bi-product of the steel making process but they're quite beautiful.





And so, the end of my stay is nigh. I'm outta here next Friday, boo hoo. It's so hard to say goodbye.