EMMA HELLE: Walking Lake, Burning Heart
Text and image courtesy of Emma Helle and Galerie Forsblom
Emma Helle. The Walking Lake of the Burning Hearts, 2022. Glazed, Gilded Porcelain sculpture.
Emma Helle: Walking Lake, Burning Heart
November 24, 2023 – January 7, 2024
at Galerie Forsblom, Yrjoenkatu 22, Helsinki, FI 00120, Finland
Opening: Thursday, November 23, from 5 pm to 7 pm.
Emma Helle: Walking Lake, Burning Heart
Two kinds of metamorphosis take place in Emma Helle’s latest sculptures: the human figures stand motionless, perhaps on the verge of turning into trees, while the landscape-like clouds and bushes have sprouted limbs as if they were attempting to carry the space. The static figures stand watch like gentle sentinels, benevolently protecting and caring for everything around them. The physical contours of the dynamic figures meanwhile melt and fluidly merge with their surroundings. The clouds may drift, and the landscape may change, but the movements of the mind follow the wanderer. The rippling lake is an emotional landscape with an irresistible pull.
About Emma Helle
Emma Helle: Born in Stockholm, 1979 | Lives and works in Helsinki
Emma Helle is a Finnish sculptor who casts the spotlight on the marginalized creatures, usually relegated to secondary status in art history. She portrays cherubs and feminine sprites in the starring role, as active agents. Relaxed, unpretentious, and generous in her style of portrayal, she lends soft, curvaceous shapes to the feminine bodies with a breadth and richness of expression that evokes canonical works from art history. Throughout the ages, there have always been specific conventions that have dictated the portrayal of the human body, a legacy that Helle addresses through a dual lens of art history and corporeality.
Emma Helle is a graduate of the Helsinki Academy of Fine Arts. Her work is represented in many private and public collections, including the State Art Collection, the Helsinki Art Museum HAM, and the Pro Artibus collection. She has had several solo exhibitions, including the Turku Art Museum, and she has taken part in group exhibitions at the Mänttä Art Festival, Kunsthalle Helsinki, and the Espoo Museum of Modern Art EMMA, Finland. Galerie Forsblom has been representing Emma Helle since 2018.