FOR

by Aleksandra Oilinki

The works in Vesa-Pekka Rannikko’s new series titled FOR are dedicated to nature – to the sentient, living beings, the elements, and their interactions with each other. In the works, nature is given its absolute intrinsic value, a place to exist without humans, and anything we might – intentionally or unconsciously – impose on it.

 Nature is here seen not through our interests, benefits or even concerns, but the works redirect out attention through a gentle recentring of human, challenging the ego- and anthropocentric way we see the surrounding flora and fauna. Human presence and cultural references seem in the works now completely erased, and in their place thrives the diversity of lifeforms local to the artist residing in Helsinki.

Vesa-Pekka Rannikko has never been tied to one single medium or one way of expression in his art. Through his practice he has constantly found a new way to best bring forth an idea, or alternately has given materials the lead towards a new path and form, continuously positioning the works somewhere between any fixed borders of painting, sculpture, moving image or installation. This new body of works has evolved naturally through experimenting with the material. Dyed plaster has proven ideal for sculpting three-dimensional shape straight out of colour, sometimes returning the work to an illusion of two-dimensionality with brushstroke-like dabs, sometimes casting it into abstract, alien-like forms. This time the plaster is cast with intarsia technique into reliefs claiming categories of both sculpture and painting, three-dimensional and flat.

There is an extraordinary presence emanating warmth and tenderness in the reliefs. The very calm, gentle way they depict an event of a minuscule scale, seems to elevate the subjects as well as the reliefs themselves to something, in lack of a better word, sacred. Indeed, part of inspiration for the reliefs comes from a folk tradition of Mexican votive paintings, so called ex-votos. As a testimony for surviving hardships or to thank for good fortune, a painter is commissioned to illustrate the event. The scale of the reliefs is also informed by ex-votos, painted usually on repurposed small tin tiles or plates, as well as icons or other pictures of devotion placed in homes. Rannikko’s reliefs, however, do not carry any religious symbolism, and all possible praise, gratitude and testimony is directed towards nature.

The erasure of an ideological framework and all cultural and heraldic iconography – as well as the sheer absence of human beings, works as a means of transferring all significance and meaning gently to the living nature. Rannikko’s reliefs do not preach, condemn or demand, at most they very gently remind us of the constant presence and importance of nature so easily overlooked by us.

Perhaps due to the part that pertains to sculpture, the reliefs feel like exceptionally tangible objects. Residing somewhere between a painting and a sculpture, they are formed by multiple layers of dyed plaster, cast on top of a curved plate which even further enhances their three-dimensionality. Each layer and colour is created and cast individually, with steps of engraving and sanding in between. The intarsia technique demands a different kind of approach and pace to the practice, especially opposed to some of Rannikko’s earlier works where the process itself is left as a very much visible and inherent part of the finished piece. Unlike the intuitive, impression-based methods of creating sculptures by painting with expressive strokes of plaster, or the suddenly appearing and dissolving forms or texts in the animated drawings, the reliefs depend upon a more meticulous plan.

This perhaps a more tranquil pace seems to me clearly visible also in the works themselves, that beam stillness and serenity through their soft colour palette and flowing forms. To me the works combine not only painting and sculpture, but also visual elements from Rannikko’s animated drawings and their equally fluid colour fields of forms, billowing and absorbing one another. Although the process of the reliefs might result in a less gestural, and more pre-meditated character, the forms still seem to echo a very similar constant movement.

From shapes of engraved wings, beaks and coiling snakes to a tail of an otter transforming into a tightly meandering river, forms move freely but determinedly, both filling and overreaching the rectangular shape of the reliefs. This very gentle tension between the fixed proportions and the forms freely leaking over the edges gives the works a surprisingly vivid quality. The combinations of muted shades that Rannikko mixes with the plaster create illusions of overlapping, translucency and depth.

Names of the works follow another folk tradition Rannikko has been drawn to for a longer period of time: fabulation. Although when fables often feature anthropomorphised animals or forces of nature, Rannikko depicts all creatures merely as themselves, not necessarily imposing features or roles from our modern reality upon them. Fables in the reliefs present sometimes a beginning of a story, sometimes merely a situation or a glimpse into one. As always in Rannikko’s art, also these fables have an open story without a beginning or an end, and aren’t loaded with a particular moral or a lesson.

Non-linearity present in Rannikko’s animated drawings takes up another kind of form in the reliefs: the fables, stories and events are in the works somewhat condensed, with forms and meanings winding, joining and dispersing in the cast layers. The reliefs continue to transform the distinctive quality of the dyed plaster towards a more or less ambiguous form by mixing abstract to recognizable, concrete to imaginary, science to fable.

The undulating shapes of feathers, water droplets, steam and waves are enveloping, embracing, and forming loops in their own closed worlds. There is a dialogue between the organic, asymmetrical ornamentation drawing from art nouveau and jugend style, and the free flowing, more abstract forms. The porous material together with its soft colours and fluid forms give the reliefs an almost ethereal lightness and downiness. Combined with the absence of horizon and the velvety mat finish of the plaster, this creates a visual language not tied to place nor time.

There is something almost talismanic in their object-like quality and the nearly portable scale. This together with the reference to ex-votos could be maybe seen through a lens of not merely survival and adoration, but that of active healing and protection. Perhaps the idea of a talisman could here be seen in reverse, with protection offered to the one portrayed?

The reliefs are full of life and empathy, and carry in them an aura of completeness, of a very tranquil stillness. They don’t impose or try to immerse their reality onto us, but very calmly open up a small window to another possibility, another hierarchy of seeing and understanding. By centring the small creatures – the dew worm, the mosquito or the tit, the works remind us of their importance as sentient creatures always worthy of attention.

Aleksandra Oilinki is an art professional based in Helsinki with a background in art history and cultural studies. Through her work at Galerie Anhava, she has had the great pleasure of collaborating with Vesa-Pekka Rannikko on three of his recent exhibitions at the gallery (2021–2025). The featured text is based on studio visits, correspondence and discussions with the artist.

This essay is from the book: “ Vesa-Pekka Rannikko: FOR “ which was published in connection with the exhibition FOR  at Galerie Anhava in August 2025.