7. – 31.5.2026

Artist Heidi Kilpeläinen’s working method involves moving between different art forms, allowing works to take shape organically. Natural elements and materials, life, and the spectrum of humanity all serve as raw material for her multidisciplinary, continuously evolving process.

The Microcosm exhibition at Galleria Huuto features a series of watercolor works. The name refers to a miniature entity in which a small part – a cell, a human or a community – contains the principles of the entire universe.

The colors, patterns and alchemical symbols in the Alchemy series reflect a human’s spiritual development and being free from fears. They are narratives in a state of flow, maps of a journey already traveled. Figurative and abstract expression coexist, offering hints of an invisible reality in which light has conquered darkness. In the intuitively painted works, one may also see patterns resembling Feynman diagrams, which depict how particles move, interact and transform within the space-time continuum. With the help of Feynman diagrams, physicists can approach the complex calculations required by quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity in a more intuitive way.

The paintings also have a visual link to the dystopian, black-and-white sci-fi world of the HK119 avatar music character created in 2003. This time, however, the colorful works aim not to depict a monstrous society, but rather the desire to achieve a utopian ideal society with a higher level of consciousness.

The artist’s neigong exercises with internal bodily energy, as well as the death of her mother in 2019, who suffered from schizophrenia, gave the initial impetus for the Alchemy series. Alchemy can be described as the study of the mysteries of life, encompassing the development of consciousness and the exploration of evolution. From this starting point, Kilpeläinen approaches the theme of the exhibition, using personal history as her material.

This autobiographical approach to artistic practice is also evident in the video work included in the exhibition. Metanoia, a single-channel version of a multi-channel video installation, consists of material filmed in the sparsely populated countryside in northern Finland during the pandemic. The work is autotheoretical and multi-layered, moving between the past and the present. In a near-future scenario where harming insects is a crime, a father and daughter work as insect police, patrolling and monitoring a wild meadow from their workstation. This utopian activity is framed by everyday events. The aging father suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and grieves the recent death of his partner. While the artist’s own research into developmental psychopathology, internal processes and daily life continue, their seasonal police work helps preserve the remaining insects. The surrounding air, soil and water are also monitored, with data recorded onto canvases. The ecofeminist values upheld by the insect police differ from the structures maintained in a patriarchal system, represented by the father’s old police uniforms from his earlier career. This utopian activity of the father and daughter reflect, on a microcosmic level, the broader macrocosmic environmental situation. Personal, generational and planetary traumas interact, and roles are reversed. Grief and rage transform into love, compassion, haptic environmental action and activism – qualities that should be increasingly present on our planet to support the coexistence and survival of species.