8 May – 1 June 2025

Galerie Anhava is delighted to present an exhibition of works by two artists, Ida Koitila and Hanna Råst. Both artists explore the place of humanity in the future. Spread out on the gallery floor, Koitila’s Crash of Air is an installation that radiates strength and sensitivity. Råst’s plaster sculptures and photographs support our recollections and memory in different ways.

Hanna Råst has created plaster sculptures that are like fossils from the future, presenting material remnants of photographs as archaeological finds or pseudo-archives. Through the works, based on personal and found archival images, Råst speculates on what might ultimately remain of our visual culture. The images are distorted, fragmented and manipulated, either manually or digitally, the memory or moment recorded in them breaking down and calling into question the foundation upon which we construct our individual as well as collective identities.

Working with lens-based media, text and sculpture, Råst addresses themes of memory and transience. Her practice often intersects with the fields of archaeology, psychology and ecology. She approaches her subject through archival materials such as photographs, historical sites, narratives, and found objects, exploring how the past shapes the present and the future.

Hanna Råst (b. 1986 Saarijärvi) lives and works in Helsinki. Råst received her Master of Arts degree from Aalto University  in 2011. She has exhibited her work in solo and group shows, most recently at ISELP, Brussels (2025), Hopusepea Gallery, Tallinn (2025), Galerie Le Clézio, Paris (2024) and Liberec Regional Gallery, Czech Republic (2022). Her works are held in collections including the Finnish State Art Collection, Helsinki Art Museum and Jyväskylä Art Museum, as well as numerous private collections in Finland and abroad.

Ida Koitila’s Crash of Air, (2015-16), installed in the gallery’s lower level, invites the visitor to pause. The details of the work are not immediately apparent. On closer inspection, one begins to distinguish among the gravel hands that are clenched in different ways. The grey, yellow, green and blue hands are grasping stones or holding on to one another. Some are life-size, others appear swollen as if on the verge of bursting. Despite their size, the hands exude a sense of humanity. Some fingers are missing pieces, some hands are missing knuckles. One can almost feel the grip and touch of the hand on the skin. These broken hands harbour a power that holds the viewer in its grip.

Ida Koitila has explored limits of the human mind and body in her work for many years: she examines body parts, processes and possible ongoing states of physical or mental illness. She combines a variety of materials to create powerful layers within her works.

Ida Koitila (b.1983 Borås, Sweden) lives and works in Hanko, Finland. She received her Master’s degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki in 2011. Her work has been featured in the following exhibitions, among others: Skulptur i Pilane, Tjörn, Sweden (2024), Vidunderligheter, Borås Art Museum, Borås, Sweden (2022), Extensions, Galleria Sinne, Helsinki (2019), Crash of Air, Finnish Institute in Berlin, Germany (2015), Time that remains, Helsinki Contemporary, Helsinki (2014). This spring, works by her will be on view at the group exhibition Morbus at Villa Gyllenberg and at Galleria Sculptor. Koitila’s works are featured in the collections of the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, the Pro Artibus Foundation, and Borås Art Museum.