27.3. – 19.4.2026

Welcome to the exhibition opening on Thursday, March 26, from 5–7 pm
The artist is present at the gallery also on Sunday, April 19, from 2–4 pm.

The exhibition presents Phantom Pain, a long-term work by Mari Oikarinen. The wooden sculpture is composed of small parts, which Oikarinen has been working on since 2021. She constructs the work from branches she finds in her immediate surroundings. In cities, willows, goat willows, aspens and rowans are often cleared away due to construction or general maintenance. In her home region of Kainuu, Oikarinen has also, to her sorrow, gathered material from the remains of clear-cut forests nearby. Phantom Pain is a work that quite literally grows out of the absence of thickets and scrub; it expands at the same time as the living space for wild growth diminishes.

Oikarinen works on the sculpture slowly – at times more intensively, at other times almost as a kind of side practice alongside other projects. Slowness and time are central elements in her practice. The time it takes for trees to grow is paralleled with the slow time of carving and working by hand. Although a willow thicket may shoot up half a metre in a single summer, most often the growth of trees only becomes noticeable over the course of years.

Phantom Pain is not only a work but also a process, during which Oikarinen has documented its by-products: shavings, drill dust and sawdust. She calls this the Chip Archive. In addition, Oikarinen keeps a record of the places where she has found material for the work. In the exhibition, the Chip Archive is presented alongside the Phantom Pain sculpture, shedding light on the methods and timescale of its making.

Phantom Pain is a way of quieting down, a work of mourning and a finger exercise,
it is restlessness and boredom, a manual task thought through with the hands;
a mycelium of slow movements
simultaneously finished, and forever unfinished.

Oikarinen’s artistic work has been supported by the Arts Promotion Centre Finland and the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

Mari Oikarinen (b. 1981) is a Rovaniemi-based artist who graduated from Kankaanpää Art School in 2009. Oikarinen works mainly with structured wooden sculptures and textile, using slow handcrafting methods.

Oikarinen has held numerous solo exhibitions in Finland and abroad and participated in juried exhibitions. Her works have been acquired to the collections of Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation, Rovaniemi Art Museum, Aine Art Museum, Oulu Art Museum, Pori Art Museum and the Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation, among others. Oikarinen was awarded a William Thuring designated prize in 2024.