Little Thumbling’s Garden

Visual artist Matias Karsikas’s Little Thumbling’s Garden brings a bunch of huge berries, flowers, and a giant pea pod to the interior staircase of Daycare Ariel in Kalasatama. In the work, clear glass that plays with light and reflections is combined with gilded ceramics and earthy wood.

Playing with scale, the work refers to Selma Lagerlöf’s classic work The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, a tale about a boy who, shrunken to the size of a thumb, travels across Sweden on the back of a goose. The story sparked Matias Karsikas’s imagination and made him dream of a miniature world. “As a child, I dreamed of being the size of a thumb so that berries would appear huge and I could eat them endlessly,” the artist recalls. 

In art history, the flower motif is connected to the tradition of ceramics, and the work’s glossy, glazed flowers are reminiscent of patterns in domestic tile stoves and decorative ceramics. The bunch of black currants is a tribute to designer Birger Kaipiainen, whose poetic and decorative objects have inspired Karsikas. Nature in general is a recurring theme in Karsikas’s works, symbolising life’s resilience and continuous perseverance.

Matias Karsikas (b. 1989) lives and works in Helsinki. His practice is based on his own highly developed methods, which are often time-consuming and technically challenging. Karsikas studied glass and ceramics at the University of Art and Design Helsinki and design at Aalto University. He was selected as Finland’s Young Designer of the Year in 2020.

The work belongs to the City of Helsinki’s art collection, which is managed and curated by HAM.