Ilkka Halso

Artist and photographer Ilkka Halso (Finland, 1965) is a graduate of Helsinki’s University of Art and Design. He lives and works in the nearby town of Orimattila. In the early ’90s Halso exhibited frequently in Scandinavia, other (European) countries followed later. In 1994 he was awarded the Finnish Nuori Suomi Art Prize. His work can be found in public and private collections, in countries such as Finland, Norway, France and the United States.

Halso’s works are characterised by their great concern for nature, which, thanks to man, is under constant threat. Restoration (2000) shows how man is trying to remedy his mistakes and restore nature using science and technology. Large natural objects – trees, stones, (sunflower) fields – are encased in scaffolding and thus transformed into restoration sites. These images arouse a sense of irony: man thinks he can use his technology to repair the damage he has done to nature. In Museum of Nature (2005) Halso goes a step further: instead of individual, disconnected elements from nature, whole ecosystems are his subject. He constructs complete buildings around them, to protect fragile nature against pollution and pernicious human influences. He simultaneously scrutinises the relationship between nature and man, because as soon as man enters these buildings he becomes a spectator or a tourist. The viewer of these photos is overcome by a sense of foreboding.