Sacred Saline Dew Drops and Other High Jinks III/VII (detail)
My practice bridges traditional woodworking with contemporary technologies like 3D printing and video, focusing on labour as both a physical act and a broader conceptual exploration. The interplay between inherited traditions and digital precision allows me to examine how craft evolves in an era shaped by mechanisation and technology. I’m not aiming to represent something explicitly Finnish, but growing up in a culture that values the handmade has naturally shaped how I approach themes of labor, craft, and storytelling.
— Eetu Sihvonen
Eetu Sihvonen (b. 1994, Kotka, Finland) lives and works in Helsinki. Their multidisciplinary practice merges traditional materials such as wood and metal with digital processes like 3D modeling, 3D printing, and animation. By combining these techniques, Sihvonen constructs immersive installations and singular works informed by folklore, fantasy, role-playing games, and storytelling.
Recurring motifs, such as the two-legged egg, coins, ribbons, and symbolic talismans, populate their sculptural landscapes. These forms often echo medieval narratives and allegories, while simultaneously proposing speculative cosmologies that oscillate between the mystical, the humorous, and the melancholic. Inspired by Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The Land of Cockaigne (1567), Sihvonen reinterprets the egg as a metaphor of fragility, greed, survival, and curiosity—an allegorical figure navigating the complexities of human desire and existence.
Sihvonen’s approach to material emphasizes labor as both physical process and conceptual inquiry. By fusing hand-carved wood and resin with digitally fabricated forms, they reveal the evolving role of craftsmanship in an era of technological transformation. This tension between the tactile and the virtual becomes a central theme in their work, opening a dialogue between tradition and innovation.
Sihvonen received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki (2019), and studied at the Glasgow School of Art and Aalto University. Their work has been exhibited at institutions and spaces including Gaa Gallery (New York), Community Centre (Paris), Holešovická Šachta (Prague), Pitted Dates (Helsinki), Lappeenranta Art Museum, Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art, HAM Helsinki Art Museum, and Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art. Their works are part of public and private collections, including the Finnish Art Society