Tommi Grönlund and Petteri Nisunen: Triad, 2021. Kalasatama Comprehensive School. Photo: HAM/Kirsi Halkola Triad Artists Tommi Grönlund and Petteri Nisunen Kalasatama Comprehensive School, Polariksenkatu 1, 00540 Helsinki Indoor Sculpture Limited access: the work is available to view for the users of the premises only. Triad by Tommi Grönlund and Petteri Nisunen is a colourful light installation embedded into the wall of the school cafeteria in Kalasatama Comprehensive School. The installation integrated into the architecture consists of three circles created with LED strips with regularly changing colours. When the colours change, random visual triads are formed. They are based on the seven-colour palette presented by physicist Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727): blue, magenta, red, orange, yellow, green and cyan. The colours can form up to 343 combinations. The installation is like a test for colour harmony, studying possible corresponds between musical triads and the tricolour combinations. The seven-colour palette can be seen as similar to the octave in Western music, which includes seven whole tones. “Many of our works involve randomness, which is often based on natural phenomena, such as the fluctuations in radioactive background radiation. Even if its average stays constant, there may be vast variations within a short period of time. The works have a life of their own within specifically set threshold values for the works’ control systems. What’s fascinating about randomness is that, despite our rational efforts, life is always random in the end,” the artists say. Tommi Grönlund (b. 1967) and Petteri Nisunen (b. 1962) have worked together since the early 1990s. Their portfolio consists of installations and interventions made in both the built environment and the natural environment. The works often involve scientific, physical and mechanical phenomena, such as movement, light and sound. Their works have been displayed in several exhibitions around the world, and they have implemented numerous installations in public spaces in both Finland and elsewhere in Europe. Recently in 2020, Grönlund–Nisunen’s extensive solo exhibition, Flow with Matter, was displayed at Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum. In 2013, Grönlund–Nisunen won the Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts, and in 2001, they received the Finland Award for art. The work was produced under the Percent for Art programme, and it belongs to the collection of the City of Helsinki, managed and curated by HAM. At map
