Aleksi Tolonen: In a Time of Chimpanzees I Was a Monkey

For the last couple of years I’ve come to the studio, sat down and started going through all the material I have in my studio: endless scraps of cut paper and magazines and books, where to get more, and also all the three-dimensional stuff I’ve collected from flea markets, junk heaps and streets and forests. In addition to collages and paintings, the exhibition includes works in clay. I like the tangibility of clay and the fact that I am always discovering something new as I mould. From clay I create works from the edge to the edge, from the precise to the clumsy, from the beautiful to the grotesque, what the process gives me.

For In a Time of Chimpanzees I Was a Monkey, I have approached the making of the whole in a different way. I wanted to enjoy making art and being in the studio, so I didn’t set out to make a pre-planned exhibition, but did what came to me and what felt natural. The idea was that chance should guide more and I believe that the decisions I made during the process ultimately led the work in a certain direction. A kind of thread emerged within the work as if by stealth, it didn’t need to be sought or forced. I find a strange humour in the work, a concern for the state of the world and a helplessness in the face of it.

Aleksi Tolonen (b. 1974) is a visual artist from Helsinki who graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 2005. He has participated in several exhibitions both in Finland and abroad, most recently in New York. Tolonen’s art is material-driven. He has done two- and three-dimensional works, everything from serigraphy to large installations. The focus of his works is curiosity and playfulness, even though the starting points of the works are often serious.