Swarm Intelligence
Swarm Intelligence is inspired by the water birds that nest around Uusikaupunki. The birds fly as a colorful group on the stairs of the learning facilities at the Wintteri Multipurpose House. The title of the work refers to the birds' habit of following the movements of their neighbours and communicating with each other at lightning speed. This human intellectual interaction is also known as swarm intelligence and is used in group work and on various digital platforms.
In the work, the birds fly between floors to and from the light hole. As in the human world, some seem to move slowly and steadily, others flap and swoop. One of the birds sits on a branch, watching passers-by.
Endangered bird species living in the Uusikaupunki area were chosen for the work. The pochard is critically endangered, the coot and the black tern are endangered, and the northern pintail has collapsed. The Caspian tern, velvet scoter and the black guillemot are classified as vulnerable, while the common redshank is critically endangered and protected. The common sandpiper is still viable but is also protected.
My aim is to highlight the importance of knowledge, the ever worsening bird mortality in our habitat and the need to protect species.
The artwork was selected through a call for entries to the Wintteri Uusikaupunki. Art piece will be open to the public in march 2025. Address to the site: Wintteri, Viikaistenkatu 3, 23500 Uusikaupunki
On - Below the Surface
The work is set in the ward for hearing and visually impaired children and young people at HUS (University Hospital of Helsinki). Sculptures are based on the Baltic Sea and its inhabitants: the flounder that lives on the sandy bottom, the perch in open waters, the amphipod and the ragworm among the tiny crustaceans, the blue mussel among the molluscs, the grass snake and, of course, the Baltic ringed seal and its pups.
The pieces are in bronze. They can be touched and will not flinch when hugged. The animals are as visually diverse as possible, making them interesting for both children and adults to explore. Surface textures range from the scales of a snake to the annual rings of a mussel. The artwork is distributed throughout the waiting area at different heights: on the floor, on the walls, on the tabletop. The scale is varied, for example the amphipods are only 7-11 mm long in life. The largest of the sculptures is the lovable pup of the Baltic ringed seal.
The artwork was chosen as a direct commission for the HUS art programme. Address to the site: Tammisairaala, Zaidankatu 2, 00250 Helsinki. The installation will be open to the public in April 2025.
Flight Paths
TAYS (Tampere University Hospital) clients and their support networks are going through difficult personal life situations. A more hopeful outlook for the future is needed alongside recovery. The work is a metaphor for life and new possibilities. In my work ceramic birds spread out into their surroundings: they explore, knock, observe and take flights. Steel arches depicting flight paths attach to the ground in the clearing, opening out to the sides and rising upwards. Five of the birds are perched on the roofs and walls of surrounding buildings. The birds in the work are species that thrive in the forests, parks and meadows of Pirkanmaa. Among the breeding and relatively abundant species, the following have made it into the collection: eagle owl, skylark, woodcock, blackbird, black woodbecker, three toed woodbecker (endangered), nut cracker, swift (e) and white wagtail. The visitor to the work is a rare but almost annual occurrence in Pirkanmaa, the striking-looking hoopoe.
The work was selected through a call for entries to the TAYS art programme and was placed in front of the TAYS Adult Psychiatry Department in Tampere at the end of 2023. Art piece has been open to the public since 2024. Address to the site: T- building, Niveltie, 33520 Tampere
Scion
Scion consists of five individual plant motifs made of linen paper and steel. Pieces are installed in the main lobby of Satakunta University of Applied Sciences Campus. Students and faculty had an opportynity to influense the selection of plants that were used as a base of the installation. People at SAMK were able to participate an survey, which gave a clear list of favourite plants.
Student often move away from home for the first time at to start of their studies, perhaps to a completely foreign city. The cuttings of the plant may be the only concrete link back home.
The work won the National Art Competition of SAMK Campus Pori 2016, and was completed in July 2017.
Address to the site: SAMK Campus, Satakunnankatu 23, 28130 Pori, Finland
Connection
Underwater installation consists of two sculptures made of stoneware ceramics, water and surrounding bedrock. Figures are 65 cm / 120 cm high. Original ceramics I made years ago, but the underwater installation was completed 2018. Installation is my own project and it is located in Ruutana pond, Orivesi.
City Animals
An environmental work of art featuring five bronze sculptures and five paved mounds. Work is located in Lampipuisto, Kontula, Helsinki and it was ready 2013.
City animals consist of five bronze cast animal figures with a lot of familiar but at the same time something inexplicable. The characters hang out as a herd in their paved environment. The work describes coexistence and togetherness. Although the characters stand apart from each other, they are in contact through gazes and postures. For example, one of the creatures has distanced itself from the crowd, but it hasn´t gone unnoticed by the others.
Caring of each others is a way to survive in a jungle as well as in the asphalt jungle of Kontula. Lampipuisto is a transit point where school children, families and other residents of the area meet. City animals enliven this resident park, which can be described as Kontula's common living room.
City Animals is commissioned by HAM Helsinki Art Museum.
Address to the site: Lampipuisto, Isännänpolku, Kontula, 00940 Helsinki, Finland
60°14'27.4"N 25°04'49.1"E
The Wind is Turning Towards the East
Temporary Public Work
The work depicts people drifting in the stream of life - without a pair of oars - without a goal. The direction is determined by the wind, coincidence or fate. The atmosphere is serene. They wait and see what will happen. It may be question about transition, moving, exile, immigration or on the other hand about spritual change.
Part of the original installation that has 18 characters.
Tampere Museum of Contemporary Art ordered this installation for summer 2013.
Work has been supported by City of Tampere and Kraftpoint oy.
Circle Fools
This work consistis of 6 lampposts and two human size figures casted in bronze. Idea is in the human evolutionary arc: yongsters may climb the tree to see the future, elderes stay still instead of regrets.
Location of the work is Million junction trafic circle, center of Huittinen, Finland.
Work was made together with Matti Kalkamo and it was commissioned by city of Huittinen.
Circle Fools received Environmental Art Foundation's Art Award 2012.
Address to the site: Risto Rytin katu / Lauttakylänkatu traffic circle, 32700 Huittinen, Finland
Balancing
When dealing with the Tax and Employment Office, our faces are usually at baseline, perhaps cold sweat on our foreheads. The work Balancing, which I designed for the main staircase of the Sinetti, brings a different attitude to the space. In the work, seven human figures balance life on a seesaw, sometimes defying gravity. Everyone has their counterweight. Each pair moves on its axis due to the effect of air flow. Characters larger than life-size take over the entire fifteen-meter-high space with their cheerfulness.
Balancing is a commissioned by the State Art Commission. Photo: Pekka Helin
Address to the site: Sinetti, Vapaudenkatu 58, 40100 Jyväskylä, Finland
On the Way, Hindrances
On the Way was originally completed for the Wild Man in the Wild - exhibition in Huittinen 1996. A local bank bought the sculpture and ever since it has been running in the center of Huittinen. On the Way is made of fibre glass. Hindrances was made next year together with Matti Kalkamo for ”Phone”-project organized byTampere Museum of Contemporary Art. Telephone company of Huittinen bought the sculpture and now a days figures are in eye contact to each others in the street.
Address to the site: Risto Rytinkatu 32, 32700 Huittinen, Finland
© 2025 by Heli Ryhänen