I’ve started so I’ll Finnish
Two Finnish design heavyweights are being celebrated at a new London show opening next month.
The impact of Aalto’s work is not to be underestimated – as we discovered on a trip to Finland last year, his designs are pretty much everywhere; not least in the omnipresence of copycat versions of his iconic three-legged stackable Stool 60.
The exhibition is entitled Reason & Intuition – Alvar Aalto & Ola Kolehmainen in Soane, and has been realised thanks to a collaboration between PM Gallery & House, the Alvar Aalto Museum and the Finnish Institute in London.
Around 40 designs by Aalto will be on show, including chairs, tables and lights. Visitors will also be able to view a collection of original designs and plans for some of Aalto’s 500 buildings – including the Villa Mairea, designed with the aim of emulating a Finnish forest.
‘Aalto regarded each building as a total work of art and his design skill reached into every corner’, says PM Gallery, which is hosting the show.
Another display will feature glassware designed by Aalto’s first wife and collaborator, Aino.
Aalto’s work will be shown in the Pitzhanger space. The gallery says, ‘The exhibition aims to be an architectural conversation across time, with Aalto’s furniture and building designs finding a home in the rooms [John] Soane built for himself as an advertisement for his skills as an architect.’
The PM Gallery will display Kolehmainen’s photography, with some images of Aalto’s buildings, and others showing the buildings that inspired him, such as the Siena Cathedral in Italy.
Kolehmainen’s beautiful, unusual imagery draws heavily on reflections, showing sections of buildings that under the repetitive patterns that form them.
The gallery says, ‘The complex new images are theatrical and epic in scale, with a nod to architectural history and even classical painting.’
Carol Swords, gallery programmer, adds, ‘The reflections, which are so much a part of Kolehmainen’s work, illustrate that buildings and art do not exist alone, they are rooted firmly in this world and, in particular, all three men [Soane, Aalto and Kolehmainen] recognise the prominence of the natural world.’
Reason & Intuition – Alvar Aalto & Ola Kolehmainen in Soaneruns from 4 July – 24 August at PM Gallery & House, Walpole Park, Mattock Lane, Ealing, London W5 5EQ.
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