DEUS PROTECTOR NOSTER -Anne Koskinen

In Deus Protector Noster Anne Koskinen has cast in bronze animals she has found between Pori and Helsinki that were run over by cars in the project room of the Pori Art Museum. The resulting bronze sculptures are at once timelessly subtle and timely reminders of the impact of our activities on the surrounding nature. The problem of the original and the copy is a recurring theme in Anne Koskinen’s work. Koskinen leaves >traces= of their origin in her works. She creates an interpretative layering, with the history and the present form of the work simultaneously present in an overlapping way. The dual nature also emerges as a continuous movement of presence/absence. The chains of association of the materials Koskinen uses in his works lead to several different senses, the works refer to what has been, but what is missing, at the same time as to what is visible. In Koskinen’s Deus Protector Noster, the process of working is an integral part of the work. Koskinen uses traditional bronze casting techniques in a new way. The mould to be burnt is made directly around the material to be used. The remains of the fired material remain inside the final sculpture. The sculpture is both a copy and an original. The casting process is ritualistic. It emphasises the relic character of the mould – the dead animal.

Anne Koskinen was born in Helsinki in 1969. She graduated with a Master of Arts degree from the University of Art and Design, Helsinki in 1996 and with a Meisterschülerin degree from the Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe in 1997. In addition to her work as an artist, she lectures at the University of Art and Design and works as the principal of the Pori Art School.