MAASAIPPELI – Jukka Nokua

The Maasaippeli exhibition is inspired by rose chafers. Rose chafers are fairly common terrarium pets among insect enthusiasts. Their coloration is brownish-black with yellow patterns. I originally acquired rose chafer larvae as food for my pet lizard—an extremely picky but beloved bearded dragon—but the larvae did not appeal to its taste. As a result, the larvae got to live their own lives in an insect terrarium, and observing their activities was, and still is, fascinating.

In my abstract paintings and soaps, I have incorporated the coloration of rose chafers and attempted to reach a similar state of being as these insects. The exhibition also features a short computer game I created, in which players experience the different stages and natural, yet dramatic, transformations of a rose chafer in a digitally modeled 3D environment.

Jukka Nokua is an abstract painter who also creates video games and soap. The exhibition title Maasaippeli is a fusion of three words that represent the featured media: maalaus (painting), saippua (soap), and peli (game).

The exhibition has been supported by the Alfred Kordelin Foundation.

Translated with ChatGPT