The works in the exhibition represent well-known symbols that have been in use for thousands of years. These symbols convey human knowledge and meaning. They describe notions that are subject to agreement and hence, they describe ourselves. The works are writing with which the sculptor has filled an empty space, adding the missing third dimension by completing it with her own thoughts. Their dialect of form combines humour with a more serious stand on the many meanings carried by the symbols. Infinity is not the familiar and elegant but lifeless double loop but full of twists and quirks like life itself. The solid authority and poise of the Greater/Less symbol is about to crack. Approximately turns out to be a slippery tongue. In their three-dimensional forms, placed on a reflecting base, the symbols can be seen in a completely new way and the connections, dynamics and dialogue between them becomes available for examination.
The works have been moulded from wax and cast in bronze using the six-thousand-year-old cire perdue or lost-wax method. Bronze, like other metals, has always been recycled to make new items of everyday use and objects of art such as weapons, tools, church bells, statues and jewellery. In other words, the works in the exhibition carry, within themselves, the material and technological memory of our civilisation.
Hanna Galtat is a visual artist based in Finland and France. She has a multidisciplinary background in fine art, design and art history. Her works include sculptures, installations, printmaking and experimental textiles.
The Finnish Cultural Foundation has funded the exhibition and the creation of the works of art.
See the exhibition catalogue here.
Photo above Hanna Galtat: Approximately, photo: Ricardo Santos
