Arktinen Afrodite / Arctic Afrodite

A passionate struggle is born from ‘Arctic Afrodite’. The rough, or jagged, and undulating forms create shimmering and flickering forms. The figure is comparable to the flying god Nike.

The artist, Laila Pullinen, worked in Italy in the 1960s where she developed her individual style using bronze plates. In it’s treatment and urgency it complys to a sculpted form, flickering like canvas in the wind, which draws in or pulls the figure into being. Lassi Nummi concluded that Laila Pullinen should be called a multi-figurative artist – because the statues are interpretatable in many ways, include different themes, and the form and themes of the figures both run side-by-side and within one another.

Pullinen portrays people’s spirit and soul, the essence being of movement or of not-physical resemblance. A re-occuring theme and subject for research for the artist is is also femininity. The artist parallels the works with that of works of the antique and renaissance and has, through her research on the subject, examined the treatment of womanhood throughout history.
Often Pullinen also combines other materials, such as wood or different types of rock, with bronze.

‘Arctic Afrodite’ measures 212 x 122cm and is made of bronze. The work belongs to the collections of the Didrichsen Art Museum.

See also: ‘Itämeri’s Daughter’ and ‘Love’.