11.12.2025-8.1.2026

The exhibition interlaces the practices of Mari Mäkiö and Jane Hughes into a constellation of journeys that move from the close-up to the vast—drawing on the hidden bark beetles of Finnish forests and fossil traces preserved in Irish Carboniferous limestone.

Both artists are drawn to what sits just beyond ordinary sight. Mäkiö studies and translates the pathways carved by bark beetles into precise works on paper, clay and textile, turning their trackwork into a kind of concrete poetry. Hughes, by contrast, follows the vestiges of deep time and the quiet shifts of light as night falls; in her paintings, fossil forms and imprints of decay become fictional figures roaming through layered colour-scapes.

Together their works offer paired vantage points: the intimate and the expansive. While Mäkiö maps the beetles’ intricate routes with clarity, Hughes assembles mirage-like collages and paintings where time, colour, and reference accumulate. Seen side by side, these approaches open a conversation about attention—how looking closely and thinking broadly can reveal structures of life and history that are usually overlooked.
Jane Hughes works explore the aesthetics of decay and displacement through ruins and disintegrating memories. Ghosts, bones, and fossils permeate the work. A recurring arch motif, drawn from fossils, threads across the paintings as a quiet link. In her work the painted landscape functions as an entry point for a shared perspective—like a filmic pause when the camera pans away, giving a moment to absorb and let things settle. Like Mäkiö, her interest is in what lies beneath the surface, and in our complex histories—personal, social, and of place, especially in seemingly peripheral locations.

Mari Mäkiö’s installation combines traces and imprints from materials collected in the forest. Her process consists of multiple steps. She extracts colour from the bark of different trees to dye recycled textiles and uses plant printing technique, using pieces of beetle-carved bark onto cloth. The textile elements are then assembled into a patchwork design. On Japanese paper, her intricate ink-rubbing prints reproduce bark pieces and branches carved by bark beetles, using the traditional Japanese Takuhon printing method. The ceramic pieces echo the bark of trees and the beetles’ printed patterns. At the end of the process, Mäkiö returns the gathered wood to the forest to continue its cycle of decay

Jane Hughes (b. 1984, Dublin) asuu ja työskentelee Helsingissä. Hän työskentelee maalauksen, piirustuksen ja installaatioiden parissa. Hänen työnsä liikkuvat figuratiivisen ja abstraktin rajapinnalla, ja niiden keskiössä on väri. Teoksissaan hän käsittelee usein maisemaan, sosiaalipsykologiaan ja kulttuurihistoriaan liittyviä teemoja.

Hughesin viimeisin yksityisnäyttely Everything Soft Slowly Turned to Bone oli Hanstholmin majakassa Tanskassa vuonna 2025. Hänen töitään on ollut esillä useissa gallerioissa ja museoissa, esim. VISUAL Carlow’ssa ja Galway Arts Centressä Irlannissa, Kaliningrad State Art Galleryssa Venäjällä sekä Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platzissa ja Grimmuseumissa Berliinissä. Hughes on valmistunut taiteen maisteriksi Aalto-yliopiston ympäristötaiteen ohjelmasta vuonna 2012. Hänen opintoihinsa sisältyi vuosi Art in Context -maisteriohjelmassa Universität der Künste Berlinissä (2010–2011). Hughes on valmistunut kuvataiteen kandidaatiksi maalaustaiteen ohjelmasta Dublinin National College of Art & Designista vuonna 2006. Hänen teoksiaan kuuluu Irlannin valtion (ulkoasiainministeriön), Suomen valtion, HUSin ja National Irish Visual Arts Libraryn (NIVAL) julkisiin kokoelmiin.

Mari Mäkiö (b. 1982) is an artist living and working in Helsinki, Finland. She works with installation, combining different media, such as sound, video, text and ceramics. Her works are often site-specific and interactive. Many of her projects have included working with different groups in participatory ways. She also works together with other artists in different collaborations and collectives.
Mäkiö’s work focuses on multi-species encounters, and the experiences of separateness, togetherness and empathy entwined within these encounters. She’s interested in how our human existence is intertwined with our environment and others around us. She is currently working in the forests of Helsinki, following the traces of spruce bark beetles and studying the connections between bark beetles, climate change and changing forests.

Mäkiö’s works have been shown in museums and galleries as well public art commissions in Finland and abroad. She has also participated in several artist in residence programs in Europe and Japan. She graduated as Master of Arts in Photography at Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Finland (2015).