In summer 2025, Gallery Elverket will show Christine Candolin’s multi-material installations and other works from the last 30 years. The exhibition reveals how, throughout her career, she has seen her artworks as a dialogue between mind and matter.

Since the 1980s, Christine Candolin has mostly made installations and spatial works. Evolution of the human mind, especially the interconnectedness of matter and mind and the emergent properties connected to this, are the important constituents of her studies, and can be seen as allegorical reflections in her work. Some of the works in the exhibition are immersive and incorporate the viewer. In addition to spatial works, there are videos, photographs, and sculptures, in materials ranging from photographs to ice and potato flour.

Candolin says her use of materials and her working process are intended to produce works in which content, form and material constitute a single spatial whole that will be meaningful for the viewer. Candolin combines the seriality and geometry of the minimalist tradition, which she loves, with natural forms. According to Candolin, her works are similar in their composition to human beings, since both scientific and cultural phenomena are mingled in the minds of individuals. Candolin sees her own artistic curiosity as representing a kind of homo ludens (playing man) mentality, with which she has had an affinity since childhood.  

As an artist, Candolin’s working process is filled with curiosity and surprises, since her interests range from quantum physics to literature and the classics of philosophy. Nevertheless, she says of her art: “My works are not answers to questions, but are often allegorical or poetic reflections of my journey and my musings on time and space; sorts of notes in the margin from one era in the world.” Indeed, when faced with Candolin’s art we repeatedly detect a mixing of different times and experiences, since she brings together her own experiences and uses them to create new ones for viewers.   

Juha-Heikki Tihinen, PhD 

Christine Candolin

Christine Candolin (b. 1953) graduated with a Master of Arts degree from the University of Art and Design Helsinki in 1982. She made her debut in 1984 and has had numerous solo exhibitions in Finland and abroad, also participating in numerous collective exhibitions. In recent years, Candolin has worked in groups alongside her own projects. Initially, she was a member of the Desire to See group of five female sculptors in 2002–2006, and then in the Sjählö9 group in 2011–2018. Her latest venture is the Projekt 2028 group, comprising ten artists and researchers. Candolin’s works are in the Collections of the Finnish State, Pro Artibus Foundation, and others. She is a member of the Artists’ Association of Finland, the Association of Finnish Sculptors and MUU. 

www.ccandolin.fi

Programme during the exhibition

7.6, 5.7, 2.8 and 6.9 Guided tours of the exhibition at 12 noon on the first Saturday of each month. Read more

24.6–7.9 Self-guided art activities for children and families Read more

6.8–7.9 Audio-described multisensory tours can be booked (in Swedish) Read more

23.8 Raseborg Pride Read more

Admission to all events is free.

The exhibition has been supported by

The Finnish Heritage Agency, Sophie von Julins Stiftelse and The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland.