Villu Jaanisoo has demonstrated exceptional sense of materials and skill for opening up the traditional borders of sculpture in his oeuvre. Jaanisoo is the original exception of Estonian sculpture, who is known internationally as well as in Finland for his unprejudiced use of mundane materials. The original meaning and form of materials is broken in his hands. The process results in spatial installations and environmental art that challenge their own sculpture-ness, location and aesthetics. This allows Jaanisoo to cast a critical eye also on the contexts of exhibiting art and the social evaluation of art. Jaanisoo’s works play with surprising ideas and the transparency of meaning. Large, three-dimensional, unforeseen “objects” of things create a tension between the current place of installation and the symbolic meanings connected with the original material.
Villu Jaanisoo builds a massive sound installation titled Wave (2008) for his first exhibition in Kalhama & Piippo. This work challenges the dimensions of both physical and mental space and thinking. It consists of sound and loudspeakers of various sizes, and is a free continuation to his earlier work Human Talk (2006).
Jaanisoo has attracted ample attention with his environmental sculptures carried out in Finland. Next summer he will realise his work Everything Is Possible in the Viikki campus of the University of Helsinki. Jaanisoo graduated from the Department of Sculpture of the Estonian Academy of Arts in 1989 and lives and works in Pirkkala, Finland. He acts as the Professor of Sculpture in the Estonian Academy of Arts.
Gallery Kalhama & Piippo Contemporary