Jan Lütjohann: Daylight, Traces, Talks, 2023 / Photo: HAM/Kirsi Halkola Daylight, Traces, Talks Artist Jan Lütjohann Perhosenkierto 5, 00410 Helsinki Indoor Sculpture Limited access: the work is available to view for the users of the premises only. The artist Jan Lütjohann has created two site-specific installations for the Honkasuo daycare, which take over two walls on two different floors. The installation Daylight, Traces, Talks consists of wooden sculptures of varying sizes. Children can touch the sculptures, which will make the pieces age over time. The curved sculptures feature a repeating round shape the artist has created by carving the timber along the growth axis of the tree. The resulting ooooooo-shapes relate to ideas of repetition and quantity: annual growth rings of a tree, the cycle of days and years, chains of events, or generations of trees, humans, and others. The shape itself doesn’t refer to any specific thing but can bring to mind pearls or berries, an intestine, or a worm or caterpillar. For this project Lütjohann has used only wood reclaimed from felling sites. Wood used in this work includes maple from Mannerheimintie and Hesperianpuisto, beech and oak from Rędziński forest in Wrocław, and an unknown type of wood from Treasure Hill in Taipei. Often the artist will also carve on site and engage in conversation with the people who work at the location or live in the area. Lütjohann uses only mechanical, pre-industrial tools such as axes, chisels and knifes to work the timber. Working with reclaimed wood makes tangible societies wasteful consumption of trees and destruction of forests and raises the question how sustainable practices can become the norm rather than the exception. Carving by hand manifests the passing of time and the irreversibility of felling trees. It is worth remembering that the newly built area in Honkasuo was covered in forest before the construction of the new neighborhood, and protestors campaigned for the preservation of the forest and biodiversity and resisted the felling of trees. As part of the public artwork commission, the artist organized wood carving workshops for the staff of the daycare. The workshops combined carving sticks of reclaimed wood and the type of conversation that happens when the hands are busy. The role of the workshops was to bring together the artist’s and the kindergarten staff’s practices, and to strengthen the relationship between the participants of this project and the artwork that is part of their workplace. Jan Lütjohann (b. 1987) is a sculptor and educator. He uses pre-industrial tools and obsolete technology to contemplate on working with hands in the present and future. His sculptures and installations are often made from wood and take the shape of tools, equipment, and workspaces. In his workshops, participants use their bodies, hands, and tools to reflect their agency in their material and immaterial environment. The work belongs to the City of Helsinki’s art collection, which is managed and curated by HAM. At map