Jori Tapio Kalliola, Sisustettu sisustus / Decorated interior

this image and the next six are (2921) screenprints from the video
in the documentations, published her in agreement with MSL

Life and works

Jori Tapio Kaliola was born in 1968 in the town of Rauma, which is located in south-west Finland, near the Gulf of Bothnia.

At the age of seventeen, in 1985, he entered the music world as a self-taught singer and musician, performing as a soloist in various groups and bands.

He moved to Helsinki, where he got a job as a park warden. He married and the family had two children.

Life in the big city didn't suit him very much, and when he was in his mid-forties, he moved with his family to Hanko, a small town of about 7,700 inhabitants, located near the Baltic Sea in the south-westernmost tip of Finland.

While renovating his new home there, some of the tree trunks he had used for this purpose, remained. This gave him the idea to make wooden sculptures from those stumps. 

So he not only loved making music, but developped also a passion for making wooden sculptures as a self-taught artist, occasionally at a rate of one a day. He felt at home there, also because this activity allowed him to protest injustice, a treatment that had already touched him emotionally in his youth.

When making sculptures he discovered that in the world of art no one dictates you anything, so if you wamt to create sculptures that cry out against injustice, a theme that occupied him from his youth, nobody can stop you..

The surrounding images show the sculptures that fill his studio in large numbers. They reveal that many of Kalliola's sculptures have a tree trunk as their base. 

Apart from tree trunks Kalliola uses recycled materials in his work, such as old stage walls, cupboard doors and scrap metal. The paint he uses comes from hardware stores.

Taking all this into account, it can be concluded that he is an artist is in the field of outsider art. His studio is so richly filled with sculptures, that it can be considered an art environment in the category of decorated interiors.

His work as an outsider artist was nationally recognized in Finland in 2021 by Maaseudun Sivistysliitto.(MSL), the Rural Education Association in Finland, who chose him as Artist of the Year.

An article on the association's website about this appointment (see documentation below) states that Kalliola wants to use his artwork to denounce the greed and the pursuit of power in the power structures in society, politics, religion and the economy.

The wooden heads of the sculptures cry out, protesting injustice in society.

Kalliola's artwork has been shown in numerous exhibitions in Finland and abroad since 1999. 

It was also featured in Middle of Nowhere. a project discussed earlier in this blog. that focuses primarily on raising awareness of artists in the field of outsider art.

The Middle of Nowhere website notes that in Kalliola's work a tree trunk is transformed into a work of art, that reflects the artist's vision of the tragicomic nature of life. The website says that Kalliola "delights in the carnivalization of life. In his works, the faces of the wooden figures are white as clowns. These characters view the world with wide eyes and open mouths."

Kalliola's creations are also included in the collections of the Finnish Rural Education Association.

And then, as the image below shows, his studio is also richly filled with his creations.

Kalliola in his atelier (2021) in Hanko_
above image by Veli Grano as on the article on the website of MSL
in the documentation, published here in agreement with MSL

In 2023 Kalliola returned to live in his hometown Rauma.

Initially he worked there in a temporary studio, but after some time he had a permanent studio, of which the image below gives an impression.

an impression of Kalliola's atelier in Rauma
this image courtesy of Kalliola

Doucmentation

* Website by Jori Tapio Kalliola, with references to newspaper articles, a photo gallery of his sculptures, photos of his musical activities and information about exhibitions of his creations

* Kalliola on Facebook and Instagram, both with a lot of images

* Article on the website of MSL on the occasion of Kalliola's election as artist of the year, with a photo by Veli Grano of Kalliola standing in his studio amidst his artistic works

Video

* Video (2021, YouTube, 3'52") by the Finnish Rural Education Association

 

Jori Tapio Kalliola

Decorated interior

Rauma. region Satakunta, Finland

can be visited on appointment (jorikalliola@gmail.com)