16 October – 15 November 2026

Photographic Gallery Hippolyte

Landscape of Traces, an exhibition by artists Wanda Holopainen and Naomi Holopainen at Photographic Gallery Hippolyte, continues their collaborative exploration of archives, memory and the ways in which knowledge is carried across generations and places. The exhibition examines how histories are remembered, preserved and passed on through objects, materials and practices. It considers how our relationship with things from the past shapes what remains, what is left out and what is forgotten.

Dust from old homes. Fibres shaped by water, weather and touch. Salt crystallising as water disappears. Plant dyes holding the memory of a season. In the artists’ processes, the environment is not simply a backdrop to the work, but part of its making, carrying traces of time, place and transformation. Everyday objects take on new shapes and forms. What lives did these materials live before taking on new forms? What lives have they touched along the way?

Created through wet felting, patchwork and plant-based dyeing, the textile installation is accompanied by video and sound, alongside sculptural works made from salt and naturally dyed goat skin. Photographs developed from analogue film preserve moments already beginning to fade. The works approach archives not as fixed records, but as things that can change, be cared for and carry new meanings. Together, these materials speak of places, environments and human experiences, where past and present, here and elsewhere, are woven together.

Landscape of Traces invites visitors to consider what remains in the materials around us and the stories they carry. What do we choose to reclaim, preserve, care for and pass on? What might exist beyond what we can see?

Wanda Holopainen (b. 1993) is a self-taught multidisciplinary installation artist. Her current practice brings together textile installation, moving image and photography to explore material memory, ecology, transformation and cultural transmission. Working with textiles, wool and natural dyes, including recycled and locally sourced materials, she investigates how materials, landscapes and everyday environments carry traces of place, time and human experience. Her current project, Once was Once wasn’t, supported by the Kone Foundation, explores dust as a silent archive through textile, moving image, sound and photographic works.

Naomi Holopainen (b. 1993) works conceptually across different media, exploring lines, forms and movement. Her practice focuses on how materials, bodies and spaces carry traces of experience, and how ordinary materials can be transformed through touch, process and environment. Grounded in collective creation and spatiality, her work explores the relationships between materials, bodies and their surroundings. Holopainen holds a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Communication with a minor in International Business from Montana State University, and is completing studies in Art Education at Aalto University in Helsinki. In early 2026, she undertook a four-month exchange at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, Ghana.

Recent exhibitions and projects by the artist duo include Walk With Me, a performance by Ama Kyei and the working group at Kiasma (2026); meet me at dawn at Titanik Gallery (2025); when the sun and land have met at HIAP Gallery Augusta (2025); coincidence at Korttelit, an outdoor art event (2025); Time, Zone & Place at Lou Gallery (2024); and Would I See the Colours Differently? at the Finnish Museum of Photography (2024). In 2020, they were recognised by Grafia as Vuoden Nouseva Huippu.

Exhibition and the artists work has been supported by the Kone Foundation, the Finnish Cultural Foundation and Villa Karo.

The exhibition includes collaborations with sound artist Saban Ramadani, Beninese percussionist and artist Kouassi Kouton, dancers from Steeze Africa and choreographer Ama Kyei.