Gothic Art in Spotlight: a creepy sculpture by artist Essi Korva

I was going to post this on Friday but decided to speed things up so that I can soon write more about the road trip itself. :D

As advertised in the previous post, I am now going to tell more about a really creepy and beautiful sculpture I saw on my road trip. The sculpture is made by Finnish artist Essi Korva.

The work of this young artist  was in OMA, the Oulu Museum of Art. I am going to be slightly travel blogger and writer just a few words about Oulu too. It is a lively city with lots to do and see. It has a lot of design shops and culture events, and innovation ( lively university) and business.

Oulu is the capital of one of Finland's provinces. Finland is a long and narrow country: the total length is about 1 000 kilometers and Oulu is approximately 600 kilometers from the most south of Finland. From this map you can see where Oulu is. It is on the coastline and much closer to Sweden than Eastern Finland. Hence big cultural and lingual differences in Finland, but more about that in later posts.

The city of Oulu

When I confess this is the northernmost I've been, many Finnish people probably laugh a bit. Most families have a habit of going (slalom) skiing and hiking in Lapland.

When comparing internationally, Oulu being the northernmost place where I've been is not that lame: Oulu is 65°N, the only not-Nordic city at that latitude is Fairbanks in Alaska. There are cities further up north but they are mostly Nordic, Canadian, and Russian cities.

I should've gone about 100 km more north to reach Lapland, where you can find the fells (small mountains typical for North, also one of the reasons people want to go to hike and slalom ski there), Santa Claus and a loads of reindeer. I did reach the area where one can spot reindeer (not Santa, mind you) and in my next post I am going to write about Finland, it's customs and regions, hopefully from a goth-y perspective. And I am not forgetting to feature some lovely photos!

Back to art: The name of the creepy girl statue is Murhelma (Sad Dream) though the Finnish word is not solely translated to that. It is actually a made up word, a new combination, and it would not be found in an official dictionary. It consists of murhe (sadness, grief) and unelma ( a day dream, a dream) but it could also contain a hint of näytelmä ( a theater play). In the museum only the Finnish name shown, so I did not know the other part of it was "dream" and I for some reason instantly thought of the Finnish word for theater play. I guess because the being looks like a mythological creature ans elves are often menacing little tricksters. And from there another close association was Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream.

Essi Korva graduated 2010 and has attended multiple environmental art happenings both in Finland and abroad. Her art usually interprets and examines strong emotions like fear and loneliness. Korva's art is said to be rather subjective, though I feel that it is very easy to "step in" to her works and their emotions and world. Even though they are often about negative feelings, they are easy to approach.

The way this sculpture is situated in the gallery room is so that one can not see it close instantly. It is further away and you have to creep closer to see what this hunched creature is doing.

That hair is real hair, though not from a human. It is from cloven-hoofed animals. Other ingredients for this human child sized creature are plaster, metal net, and urethane foam. I am guessing the surface might be processed with something but I do not know for sure.

Although mourning and sadness are the strongest emotions this sculpture radiates, it does seem a bit scornful too, or so I feel. And this creature the size of a nine-year-old does seem a tiny bit threatening.

Essi Korva has a distinguished style and her sculptures are simply fascinating! You should check her website for more dreamlike creatures. The website is both in Finnish and English, just scroll past the Finnish text and you will find translations.

You really have to peek to see the face of this creature. I had to kneel to get a photo of the eyes. I am not sure why I actually call this being a girl. It has the body structure of a child so we can't really see if it even has a gender or if it is unisex. It does have petite features and big eyes and those are associated with femininity, as is a long hair. Does not mean that I should make hasty interpretations about this characters sex, though. After all, the name of the statue is more about an emotion, not about physical creature. Anyhow, the craftsmanship of this statue is magnificent and it is very lifelike.

Next up: post about Eastern Finland and then another about Western Finland!

Bears at the city of Kuopio, Eastern Finland