Taru Happonen: Taxidermy Surfaces
Time is the one thing that can’t be stopped. Like a sharp blade, it silently cuts through hard and soft, constantly advancing. Nothing is capable of jolting it even the slightest bit, but it changes everything.
Excerpt from Liu Cixin’s novel The Dark Forest*
Visual artist Taru Happonen’s exhibition Taxidermy Surfaces explores the complex and ever-changing world on a cosmic scale as well as up close to the microscopic. The works bring together elements of science fiction and the real world. The peeled skins of creatures are combined with circuits, plant cells and dismembered tongues.
The works in the exhibition use a wide range of materials, including pearl pigments, aluminium powder, oil paint, marble powder and mineral resin. In the artworks, materials traditionally associated with either painting or sculpture are mixed together. At the same time, the organic and the synthetic are inextricably intertwined, both in terms of materials and content.
The soundscape of the exhibition has been created in collaboration with the composer Tapio Viitasaari.
Taru Happonen (b.1989, Lahti) lives and works in Helsinki. She graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in 2023 from the Academy of Fine Arts of the University of the Arts, Helsinki. In recent years, her works have been exhibited at HAM gallery in Helsinki Art Museum, Forum Box in Helsinki and Galleria Mältinranta in Tampere. Her works are part of the collections of Kiasma, HAM, the State Art Commission and HUS.
*translated by Joel Martinsen
The artist’s work and exhibition have been supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
The Finnish Heritage Agency supports Pori Art Museum in the production of the exhibition.