an inventory and documentary of art environments in Europe created by non-professionals
October 11, 2024
Mauno Suonpää; Pahkaparatiisi / Gnarl paradise
images are screenprints from the video in the documentation
Pahkaparatiisi is in English Gnarl Paradise and Gnarl stands for: a rough, knotty protuberance, especially on a tree. Just one more step and we begin to understand what it's all about: protuberance, that's an English word that means something like a knob, an outgrowth or a washout .....
The images in this article show the characteristics of the items collected in the art environment reviewed here, namely all kinds of outgrowths of trees in particular, which have a specific shape that is so appealing that, when brought together in an extensive collection, they radiate an artistic quality.
Life and works
The one who created this art environment is Mauno Suonpää, who was born in 1932 in Huittinen, a community of around 9500 inhabitants in the region Satakunta in the south-west of Finland.
He was raised in a house outside the built-up area of Huittinen, situated on a wooded area where the Gnarl Paradise would later be located and of which it is now a part.
He started working in the forest at the age of 15, first with the help of horses, later with a tractor bought in 1956.
Suonpää did his work in the forest with an open eye for special shapes and colours that nature brought out around him. He began to see that nature produces all kinds of shapes in which you can recognize figures of people, animals or all kinds of items.
And then, at a certain moment he began to collect everything that he saw as special in the forest.
Here are some examples of what Suonpää collected.
In the image above on the left, an animal with a snout, such as a beaver, can be seen, while in the image above on the right, it appears that an owl is looking out through a hole in a tree.
In the image above, the shape of a bird is very clearly recognizable.
Nature also produces items that can be seen as letters and numbers. The collection assembled by Suonpää includes 300 letters and 75 numbers formed by nature.
The letters include the entire alphabet, and the numbers zero through nine can also be seen.
Suonpää has made every effort to ensure that the forest with the house where he grew up has retained its original, natural character as much as possible.
He has arranged that all special trees have been given a name and a number, placed on a copper plate, which is a cataloguing that can be of importance for future generations.
His work has not gone unnoticed in public administration circles, as he has received a medal from both the President of Finland and the city of Huttinen.
The site has become an art environment
Around the turn of the century Suonpää decided to transform the forest area and the buildings with the collection into an art environment that can be visited by the public.
To this end, the existing accommodations have been transformed into exhibition rooms and there is a modest opportunity for visitors to use a consumption and buy souvenirs.
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