19.9. – 29.9.2026

Galleria Kuu-si, Eerikinkatu 33, Helsinki

The vernissage of Elina Kervinen’s exhibition: 18.9. 17-19:00.

All welcome!

While self-care has traditionally meant rest and taking care of oneself, neoliberalism and consumer culture have transformed moments of self-care into opportunities for consumption and self-optimization.

Beauty industry products marketed to women are often packaged as acts of self-care and investments in oneself. This way, consuming these products is not perceived as consumption, but rather as an expression of individual free will and the responsibility to take care of oneself. In the pursuit of an unreachable ideal self, women are expected to cocoon themselves in gel pads, peptides, lifting tapes, hyaluronic acid, collagen, skin-lightening products, and so on. In reality, all of this contributes to increased self-criticism, reinforces Eurocentric and ageist beauty standards and other harmful sociocultural structures while fueling consumer culture.

´Nighttime cocoon, morning shed’ explores the contradictions between rest, gendered neoliberal self-care and beauty standards using SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast) as a medium and collaborator.

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Elina Kervinen is a Helsinki-based artist and art educator who works with photography and sculpture. Her artistic practice is inspired by observations of recurring patterns in her surroundings, which often hide a larger sociocultural structure behind them.