Alexander Salvesen: So Where Do We Cut Next? – Lux Helsinki at Kanneltalo

I mourn the fallen trees. Dried out and ploughed forests. Ditched swamps. Most of this destruction is utterly unnecessary. The violence against nature must end.

Instead of more cutting we need more care, empathy, softness, love and support for where it is needed.

The record high logging rates have crushed carbon sinks, biodiversity and the resilience of our ecosystems is in free fall. The Center Party, The National Coalition Party, The Christian Democrats and The Finns Party have systematically resisted the realisation of sufficient climate and biodiversity actions.

I draw lines vertically and horizontally, my own tally marks on buildings. Time is running out.

So Where Do We Cut Next? Is a kinetic four channel analog projection and an ode to the disappearing Finnish forests.

The artwork is commissioned for Lux Helsinki. The artwork can be experienced in lights in the evenings between 5 and 10 p.m.

Alexander Salvesen is a Finnish artist and curator who primarily works with light in different forms. In his works he often focuses on colour, space and shape and especially their relations to each other and to the viewer.

Salvesens' work often springs from perceptions of our surrounding nature and from its phenomena, but also from present political and socio economic situations. Currently he is interested in the complexity of our perception, the puzzling concept of time and our obsession with speed and travel in an age of mass extinction. A deep awareness and worry of the ongoing climate crisis and ecological collapse can be found throughout his works.

His works have been exhibited in galleries, museums and art festivals in Finland and abroad.