Antti Laitinen: The Ringing Forest

The Roaring Forest (2025) is a kinetic installation that provokes reflection on the human ability and means to shape nature. The installation is assembled from wooden material found in different parts of southern Finland. It includes both twigs left in logging areas and the rhizomes of windfalls found in the forest. These trees, which have broken down in various ways, have been reassembled in the work into different types of trees and arranged into a forest. This creates a man-made landscape, to which mechanical mechanisms give life and sound.

Natural environments often serve as the starting point for Laitinen’s artworks. According to the artist, the subject of the works is not always nature, although that is where he finds his materials and ideas. In addition to installations, he deals with his chosen themes through video and photography.

In his previous works, Laitinen has also subtly examined the repetitiveness of physical labor and the impact of humans on their environment. For example, he has taken apart an entire tree to reassemble it, and attempted to move a lake using only buckets. Laitinen describes his works as physical experiments, where the process of making is more important than the end result.