Pasi Eerik Karjula

Thu 18.1.2024

”… ja vähän moottorisahalla ” (…and a little with a chainsaw.)

Pasi Eerik Karjula is known for his robust and powerful (wood) sculptures. The primary material he uses is “round wood,” and his main tools are a chainsaw, axe, and knife.

The surrounding world and his relationship to it and its functioning are often the starting point for his artworks.

“The starting point for a piece may also be the shape of the wood or the forms ‘inside’ the wood. Carving wood is at its best when the artwork takes part of its form and figure from the original shape of the piece of wood, branch, or trunk. Branches, burls, and decayed areas can, at their best, contribute significantly to the final appearance of the artwork,” Karjula explains.

Technically versatile, Karjula’s interests extend beyond sculpting. In addition to carving, he is interested in live images, photography, environmental and site-specific art, as well as collaborative projects. Regardless of the medium, creating art is for him a process of thinking, contemplation, and exchanging ideas about why something is interesting or not interesting… without forgetting the inspiration behind everything and the sparks of ideas it generates.

“Executing a sculpture with simple tools from wood has long been close to my heart, perhaps because of the expressive nature of the process, despite its almost meditative intensity. In the best moments, time and place are forgotten, and the creator becomes one with both their tools and the material being worked on. At that point, it doesn’t matter what is created – sometimes the result is a pile of chips, sometimes something to put in the fireplace, and sometimes even something that can be shown to others,” Karjula continues.

This time, on display, is a group of wooden sculptures created over the years, primarily using chainsaws as tools. In all these sculptures, the starting point has been a single piece of wood, a section of a tree trunk, a wooden log from which the artworks have emerged.

The artist does not wish to comment further on the “worlds” of his works but wants to leave it as a matter between the artworks and their viewers. The true essence of art is often within the minds of the observer and experiencer, and it may not necessarily require deeper analyses – at least not from the artist’s perspective in this case.

Pasi Eerik Karjula (born 1964) resides and works in Kuru (and Pohjaslahti). Karjula studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki from 1986 to 1991 and at the Kankaanpää Art School from 1985 to 1986. His works can be found in various collections, including HAM, Kiasma, EMMA, KUNTSI, Sara Hilden Art Museum, Korundi, the Finnish State Art Collection, Tampere Museums, Vexi Salme, Malmö Art Museum, and the National Public Art Council. Karjula has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions.

www.pasi-eerik-karjula.fi

@pasi_karju