We are living in a time where the environment is changing rapidly and disappearing into the past. Dawn Chorus explores the perception of nature, disappearance, sense of loss and melancholy. It delves into an intimate emotion that is easily ignored in a society marked by the virtues of efficiency and material values. Fewer and fewer people understand biodiversity; we live apart from the surrounding nature and do not even realise it is something to be missed. This fits the idea of nature as a resource and a material commodity.
The heavy, industrial material of the sculptures has played its part in promoting the loss of biodiversity. Bronze has been there throughout the cultural history of humans. Perhaps the archaic material of monuments and statues carries with it a gaze dedicated to cultural history and people which, instead, should be directed at the disappearing or lost species that cannot be found in the statue halls of museums.
Dawn Chorus refers to a collective awakening; a moment where different species of birds sense the new day and break into song at the same time, moments before sunrise. Dawn Chorus is the measure of man – changes in the significances of perception as small and unnoticeable dimensions are reflected on human proportions. The relationship between people and geology is also a way to understand our temporal relationship with the world; to find something comforting in our momentary lives.
Perttu Saksa (1977) is a Raasepori-based photographic artist and sculptor. Saksa’s work explores the relationship between people and the environment. His pieces have been exhibited in Finland and internationally since the early 2000s and he is featured in several public collections. The photographic book Dawn Chorus, to be published this autumn by Garret Publishing, will reflect on the themes of the exhibition. The pieces were created in Hankoniemi between 2002 and 2022.
The exhibition has been supported by the Kone Foundation and the Arts Promotion Centre Finland.
