I become interested in a simple clay shape and decide to repeat it and see where it takes me. The clay records the touch and the impressions of fingerprints. As I repeat the shape, its nature and behaviour reveal themselves.
The slow repetition settles me into an active state of waiting. I can’t imagine how the repeated shapes will finally look when put together and what kind of a rhythm they will create. One must make to be able to see. My process-based way of working creates pieces that are images of making.
Vessels (container, bowl, ship – something that holds/supports) refers to the fragments that create the actual artworks as well as to the idea of a piece of art as holding something; both recording and revealing information.
Suvi Sysi (b. 1990) is a Helsinki-based visual artist whose pieces are mainly large installations often based on repetition and exploring colour, temporality, touch and spatiality. Her pieces question the definition of pictoriality and the boundary between a finished and an unfinished piece. Sysi describes her work as cooperation with her materials, such as paper, clay, wood and plaster. The roots of her work lie in the extensive use of the methods of graphic arts. In the past three years, she has taken an increasingly material direction in her work.
Sysi graduated with a Master’s degree in Arts (Art and Design) from the Academy of Fine Arts under the University of the Arts Helsinki in 2020. Her artwork has been exhibited extensively both in Finland and abroad. Her pieces are included in various art collections, such as those of the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, the State, the Saastamoinen Foundation and the Finnish Art Society.
Her work has been supported by the Arts Promotion Centre Finland.
