Nesting
15.10.2025
Pia Hentunen
Location → Mustasalmi, Oulu
Epiphyte:
- Harmless microbes living on plant surfaces.
- A plant or a fungus that grows on the surface of another plant.
- A plant that grows on top of other plants, e.g. on a branch of a tree, but does not otherwise benefit or harm its host (BS).
(Definition from the Bank of Finnish Terminology in Arts and Sciences)
Mustasalmi resembles the rest of Finland in that there are no epiphytes familiar from rainforests. Hentunen creates imaginary, small and strange sculptures, epiphytes of the future along Mustasalmi for paddlers and walkers to discover. Hentunen works on the artworks by welding, crocheting, and plasma cutting. The small epiphyte sculptures are hidden in the vegetation along Mustasalmi. With climate change, our environment is constantly changing. It changes partially slowly and in a controlled manner as it has always changed, and in some places dramatically, as a result of human activity. In her artwork, Hentunen takes a stand on the changed state of nature caused by climate change, the loss of species and the appearance of new species. The series of epiphyte sculptures brings out how small a part of the species we know and how little our knowledge of nature is, and reminds us how biodiversity is threatened. The works will be donated to the Oulu Art Museum and their planned life cycle is several years.
Image gallery
Artist:
Pia Hentunen
Pia Hentunen (b.1967) is an artist living in Tyrnävä.
“In the 90s, I graduated as a biologist from the University of Oulu, majoring in the animal ecology of stream waters. I got my art education at the Kankaanpää School of Fine Arts and the Krasnoyarsk Art Institute. Although my profession changed, I am still deeply interested in the surrounding nature and often draw content from it to my art. I am particularly interested in bringing out phenomena that are difficult to see and about which almost nothing is known. The world of insects fascinates me, as does communication and interaction between species.
I am an environmentally conscious visual artist, and I always think carefully about what I do, so that my carbon footprint is as small as possible. My work in recent years has focused on outdoor public artworks. My main materials currently are scrap pieces from the metal industry and thin rst yarn, which I crochet and skein. I have participated in exhibitions in Finland and abroad since 1995. My works are in several public art collections, e.g. ODL, OP Pudasjärvi, Oulu Art Museum, University of Oulu, Oulu University Hospital OYS, University of Helsinki’s North Ostrobothnian Nation, Finnish State Art Commission’s State Art Deposit Collection.”
