Impressions

Artist Mari Mäkiö’s ceramic relief, Impressions, has been installed in Mellunmäki’s new Daycare Tunturi. The work captures a fleeting moment in a forest’s lifecycle, which includes growth, decay, and decomposition.

Impressions is made up of 116 handmade and glazed ceramic tiles each of which recreates the patterns of bark and engravings made by bark beetles on the treesof the forest surrounding the daycare centre. The artwork flows like a path from outdoors to indoors and creates a connection between the nearby forest and the daycare centre. The work consists of two parts, Impressions (Spruce), whichis embedded in the daycare centre’s brick facade, and Impressions (Aspen), which extends across the walls of the corridor and dining hall indoors.

The work was inspired by the forest excursions the artist organised with the kids from the daycare. The children looked for interesting surfaces in the forest and made imprints of them with clay. The kids then got to keep these clay pieces, and Mari Mäkiö continued exploring the forest, choosing to incorporate the surfaces of spruce and aspen into the final work.

Mari Mäkiö (b. 1982) lives and works in Helsinki. She works with installation, combining various media, such as ceramics, text, printing techniques, video, and sound. She often creates her works in collaboration with other artists or communities. Mäkiö graduated from Aalto University with an MA in photography in 2015.

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