Page 19 - Matti Kalkamo / RAW

Of The Son And The Son’s Spirit
The 2021 Academy Awards ceremony was held under exceptional circumstances and honoured an exceptional number of non-white, non-American filmmakers. Nearly every acceptance speech emphasized the status of minority cultures in USA, especially African-Americans, and the still ongoing racial disdain. The topics highlighted by the Black Lives Matter and Me Too movements, experiences of injustice and the importance of all kinds of humanitarian work – the importance of equal human life – were visible and audible in the television broadcast.
The works of Matti Kalkamo (b. 1968) scream the same thing. Kalkamo operates in the polyphonic and polymaterial field of sculpture and installations, with the respect brought by hard materials, but with stories about the everyday worries of ordinary people, their fears and sorrows, the harmful things that penetrate the mind that we little humans try to rid ourselves of through the omnipotent power of culture. Nature, fresh air, exercise, the beautiful things around us, art – all these things help us carry on amidst the challenging coronavirus pandemic and cast our eyes towards the future.
Kalkamo’s handprint as a sculptor is partly raw. The surface of cast bronze is cold, hard and dark, but its contents are touching. So is Kalkamo himself; a bald-headed man dressed in black elicits respect on the streets of his hometown, Tampere, but when the same bald-headed man opens his mouth, out come humorous wisecracks, funny observations about everyday incidents and mischievous one-liners.
19