Lepotauko / Rest

Rest consists of a faceless hooded character in a robe. It’s right knee rests on the left knee and it’s sitting position is upright with a straight back. The whole character is covered under the robe, apart from one shoe which is visible. The light grey sculpture looks rather like a being from outer space which has landed unobtrusively in the middle of the park. If the sculpture were set in another environment, one could think that the clothes are protection garments to shield from foreign bodies or pollution.

The artist Arvo Siikamäki was born in Saarijärvi in 1943 and was a politically active young artist in the 1960s. His oeuvre blossomed in the 1960s and he became well-known for his works portraying dark apocalytic themes which reflected the tensions and threatening circumstances omnipresent at the time. He has also often used the atrocities of war as a theme to express his own protest against war.

Siikamäki became known for using coated bronze and aluminium for his works. In his later works he also uses stone, marble and even wood. His oeuvre changed towards a more abstract expression and his works from the last years are characterised by classical lines and harmonious figures in which bronze and stone are worked masterfully. The characters are often dressed in a cape or naked, faceless, hooded women and /or humanoid or like characters from outer space.

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