Play, learning, and urban nature are brought into focus in the new public artworks made for two educational institutions in Helsinki

The new artworks have been curated by HAM Helsinki Art Museum for a daycare centre and a school, where they’ve become part of the daily life of the children and staff. The works address childhood experiences, play, and urban biodiversity, creating space for observations, imagination, and learning together.

Erno Enkenberg’s  Play and Celebration is a series of paintings that was created for Daycare Jäkälä in Tapaninkylä. Erika Adamsson’s painting School Recess and the series Urban Organism Collection have found their new homes at Comprehensive School Norsen’s Cygnaeus unit, in a historical building on Ratakatu.

Play and fantasy at Daycare Jäkälä

The world of daycare-aged children is made visible in Erno Enkenberg’s painting series titled Play and Celebration. The works are spread across the main hall and activity room of Daycare Jäkälä, which was designed by Verstas Architects. The series of six oil paintings depicts children’s play and the experience of growing up, from individual moments towards more communal and imaginative activities.

Everyday situations are mixed with elements of fantasy, and the series culminates in a fancy dress party. “It is important that children have the opportunity to try out different roles, and I’d like to think this painting encourages that,” the artist says. 

The works are influenced by digital visual culture and feature bright colours and simplified human figures that are reminiscent of the anonymous, easily identifiable characters of early video games.

Erno Enkenberg (b. 1975) is a visual artist from Espoo, living and working in Helsinki. Enkenberg combines traditional oil painting with digital tools and uses 3D modelling software to create drafts for his paintings. Enkenberg’s works have been acquired for many Finnish collections, including the collections of HAM, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, the Saastamoinen Foundation, the Sara Hildén Art Museum, and the Finnish State.

Daily life of a school and urban nature at the Cygnaeus unit of Comprehensive School Norsen

Erika Adamsson’s School Recess portrays the break between lessons in the yard of the school on Ratakatu. The view in the painting is framed by the fourth-floor windows, and in the yard children are playing freely, forming smaller, either stationary or constantly changing groups.

The artwork references Verner Thomé’s painting Children Playing on the Beach (1912), which is on the second floor of the Ratakatu school building. Through these works, depictions of children from different centuries engage in dialogue across the building, which is also itself over 100 years old. 

The work has been painted with oil paints on marine aluminium, and the partially bare surface is brought to life by reflections that change with the light and time of day.

The series of paintings Urban Organism Collection is based on workshops where pupils drew the species they noticed on their way to and from school. The paintings, created based on the pupils’ fieldnotes, emphasise urban biodiversity and the importance of observation.

When working on the series, the artist was thinking about the View-Master picture reels of her childhood and their rounded edge frames that direct the gaze of the viewer. The motif repeats in Adamsson’s paintings, and references focusing the gaze: “My job is to watch, observe, and to fix in on interesting things,” explains Adamsson.

Erika Adamsson (b. 1973) is a visual artist from Turku, whose works bring together figurative and expressive elements. Her works are featured in the collections of the Finnish State, HAM, and the Saastamoinen Foundation. In 2018, she was awarded the William Thuring Prize by the Finnish Art Society. 

These new public artworks have been made possible by Helsinki’s Percent for Art principle. A part of the city’s budget for construction and renovation projects is set aside for commissioning new public artworks. HAM Helsinki Art Museum is the art expert in these projects, and the new works are added to the City of Helsinki’s art collection, managed and curated by HAM. The collection already includes more than 200 works implemented through the Percent for Art principle.