ALKEMISTIN’S CARE – Anna Matveinen

Opening on Thursday 28.03. at 18-20

The Alchemical Care exhibition focuses on the unified synergy of scent, memory and care. What is the effect of growing a work of art from a zero point to a final form?

The project will grow biona skin with an organism called scoby, a combination of bacteria and yeast that ferments tea during the growth phase and produces cellulose in the process. The drawings for the works are based on specific scent memories and these drawings are fired onto the bionahs using a carbon dioxide laser. The same technique has been used for handmade papers made from recycled materials and natural fibres.

Anna Matveinen is a visual and performance artist working at the heart of ritualised art making. The content of the works varies, but the current focus of her work is on sacred liminal spaces and the cultural residues found in their surroundings. As an artist, it is also extremely important to apply phenomena from the natural sciences to artistic and ritualistic spaces.

Matveinen’s works aim to create spaces of stillness, where it is possible to experience sudden emotional states that lead to renewal, recovery and invigoration of the will to live. She also wants to facilitate deep experiences of connection with the viewer’s emotional reactions through artistic material. The main material of the work is sound and text-based works that change their form through a ritualized artistic process and fragment into visual material. These forms are images, videos and installations.

Matveinen graduated with a Master of Arts from the Uniarts Helsinki in spring 2022 and a Master of Fine Arts from Kankaanpää School of Fine Arts in 2016.

Translated with DeepL.com