JOUNA KARSIFamily tree 11.9.2021 – 10.10.2021
The themes of the works in my exhibition are strongly tinged by grief, since around 18 months ago our second child was stillborn. However, after the first wave of disarming grief, grief behaved in an unexpected way. I did not feel grief in the midst of our family since our firstborn compellingly drew me into the very heart of life. My grief rises to the surface at moments when I do things that my own father had taught me to enjoy. Joy and sorrow are both strongly present during those moments. I also experience sorrow and joy at the same time as I move about and work with my hands as a sculptor.
My grief is not a matter of personal loss and after everything I can only be grateful for how much I have gained. But when I see myself as part of a continuum greater than my own family and myself, I grieve that I cannot pass on to my lost child the good that I have received myself.
A sense of a break in continuity has a major role in my exhibition. In my own life, I have experienced this in a concrete way as part of my grief, but in my exhibition I expand the same idea to include cultural matters such as traditions, rituals and customs as well as a relationship with nature and a bodily presence. Things that keep us connected to each other and ourselves. When we forsake and forget these things, we lose our connection to our roots and ourselves. Nature, spirituality, art and movement remove us from everyday life and through experiences connect us to a wider context.
Jouna
Karsi
Jouna Karsi (b.1980) is a sculptor. He has studied at the Turku University of Applied Sciences’ Arts Academy. His most recent solo exhibitions include the Studio space at Turku Art Museum (2015) and galleria Heino (2018). His works have also been featured in a number of joint exhibitions, including at the Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art (2015), Rovaniemi Art Museum (2015), Oulu Art Museum and Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art (2016) and Kouvola Art Museum (2020)