Kirsi M. Paltto & Jouni S. Laiti: Litnát, lahka - Lempeästi, lujasti

Kirsi M. Paltto and Jouni S. Laiti create installations and sculptures in their workshop in Inari, drawing on duoji - Sámi handicraft - techniques and materials. Both artists are from Utsjoki and currently live in Inari.

In Caisa gallery, the works explore universal human emotions: grief, closeness, the need for intimacy, and affection. Paltto and Laiti combine bark, wood, and horn with wool, textiles, rusted steel, and other industrial materials in their pieces. Through art, they also reflect on surviving difficult times, exclusion, and being unheard.

Kirsi Máret Paltto addresses in her work the traditional Sámi worldview and spirituality, as well as questions of distance, return, and restoration. She is also a writer, and her poems deepen the message of the works - the poems are displayed as text or can be heard via QR code.

In Jouni S. Laiti's works, traditional Sámi ways of life meet contemporary societal values. He highlights the friction between nature and industrialisation, and how natural habitats have shrunk through human activity. In this exhibition, Laiti approaches human emotions and the need for closeness through humorous and playful means as well.

A guided tour in Finnish sign language will be held on Saturday 21.11 from 13.00 to 14.00.