Born 1970 in Jyväskylä, Finland | Lives and works in Salo, Finland.
Kimmo Schroderus’ (b. 1970) career as a sculptor began in the 90s. Industrial materials and ways of working are combined in his sculptures with an organic form language and traditional sculpting methods, such as metal casting. Schroderus’ working process emphasizes handicraft, the making itself, the importance of mastering materials and techniques, and an aspiration to learn more all the time. For Schroderus his workspace in Salo is a kind of laboratory for seeking out new ways of reworking, shaping, or even deforming materials. The material of the works in this new exhibition is polished, acid-proof steel.
In the Sculptures-exhibition Schroderus’ most important tools are an abundance of forms and distortion of those forms, shininess, and the reflectiveness and transparency of the surfaces. The sculptures’ long, laborious journey to being a finished artwork is part of their content: the fabrication of the sculpture has to be visible – the way that its making has been a meaningful act for its maker. The professional skill that comes with a long career is evident in the flawless surface of the end result.
The works are open to interpretation, but at the very least the thematic worlds of the sculptures reveal influences from science fiction, horror films, and even the gargoyles familiar from the walls of gothic buildings. The grotesque figures, which have as if been created or mutated in failed scientific experiments, exist in interesting contrast with the works’ smooth, shiny exterior. The sculptures do have figurative features, but the entities depicted are not from this world. The most recent sculptures here further contain references to the world of comics, and to competing.
Schroderus’ solo exhibition at Makasiini Contemporary consists of sculptures from 2018-2021. He is known for winning the 2004 Ars Fennica award, and his works are, for instance, in the Kiasma, Niemistö, Wihuri, Saastamoinen Foundation and Helsinki Art Museum, HAM, collections. Schroderus’s most recent work to gain widespread public visibility is the Eppu Normaali-themed sculpture Alamökki(The Lower Hut), which was unveiled in Ylöjärvi in 2018.
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http://www.kimmoschroderus.com
