Series of artworks at Käpylä Comprehensive School

Using found items and recycled materials, Anu Tuominen has created a series of artworks for Käpylä Comprehensive’s Untamo building. Collecting material forms a key element of Tuominen’s work. In her artworks, lost woollen socks, buttons, flea market finds from medals to rulers, old books and pieces of crochet created by Tuominen herself invite curiosity, close perception, and layers of memories. Using insightful analogues and plays on words and materials, the artworks transform ordinary objects into new, unexpected forms.

The series Educational Boards comprises four pieces. These assemblages invite viewers to study colour theory, visit ski tracks, calculate ‘maths’ and explore nature. In each framed artwork school children can discover a multitude on small observations on colour, movement, counting and nature.

The Anchored, Perennials and Chocolate cake assemblages have been made from collected buttons. Tuominen can transform an ordinary button into a delicious chocolate praline or an anchor for a nautical chart. The odd socks and mittens of the Lost and Found series have been installed by the main lobby’s coatracks. In these works, lone woollen accessories have found new partners based on colour and shape. Taking over the old fire hydrant cabinet Tuominen also created an artwork inspired by food cupboards.

Anu Tuominen (b. 1961) is a sculptor and conceptual artist who uses abandoned and found items, handicrafts techniques and recycled materials in her works. Her artworks often feature wordplay that inspires new interpretations of everyday objects, and her work is based on decades of collecting materials. This is her way of observing the world and, in turn, items found at flea markets, on shorelines and in bins blossom into new discoveries for others too. “Collecting is liberating. You are free to roam, look around, wander in every direction.” 

The work belongs to the City of Helsinki’s art collection, which is managed and curated by HAM.