Kastehelmi Korpijaakko: A Comedy About a Meadow That Wanted to Own Itself
You haven’t once thought that maybe I might want something too. And you know what? I want it like CRAZY.
– from the work Kuuleminen (The Hearing), 2025Kastehelmi Korpijaakko’s exhibition gives a voice to an undefined, fictional meadow. The artistic process A Comedy About a Meadow That Wanted to Own Itself, which began with inheritance negotiations, is a journey into the human tendency to form communities through ownership. At the same time, the exhibition reaches beyond interpersonal relationships into interspecies connections, asking how ownership practices shape the ways we relate to one another.
The historical foundation of private ownership is built on the idea of progress. Those who utilized land most efficiently earned the right to own it. When wool production intensified in 18th-century Britain and common pastures were enclosed, the words manure and improvement became synonymous.
What word describes progress in an era of collapsing habitats? How do we own when we own? Can power be relinquished? What about responsibility? Is a boundary a threat or a protection?
Korpijaakko explores ownership and its negotiations through subtle humor. The works, combining photography and text, include declarations, dialogues, exclamations, and statements.
In the video work Kuuleminen (The Hearing), the meadow’s monologue—supported by visual evidence—reveals a strained relationship and an attempt to resolve imbalance through the setting of boundaries. The title refers to Section 21 of the Finnish Constitution, which guarantees the right to be heard in one’s own matter as a legal safeguard. A risograph-printed publication accompanying the video is available to visitors at the exhibition. 
Kastehelmi Korpijaakko (b. 1984, Lohja) is a photographic artist working on Harakka Island in Helsinki. She earned her Master of Arts degree from Aalto University’s photography program in 2018. Her works have been exhibited in solo shows at Galleria Hippolyte (2025), Huuto Gallery (2023), and Art Centre Mältinranta (2021), as well as in a group exhibition at the Mänttä Art Festival in summer 2025.
In 2025, Korpijaakko has worked at the Cité internationale des arts residency in France, the Väinö Tanner Foundation residency in Italy, and in the Sharing Grounds project of the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York.
Her work has been supported by the Arts Promotion Centre Finland, the Olga and Vilho Linnamo Foundation, and the Kone Foundation
www.kastehelmikorpijaakko.com