CANDIDATE 2001

Helena Hietanen

Helena Hietanens sculptures and installations are dealing with topics related closely to personal life experiences, life and death, the human lifecycle, handicraft traditions and traditional working methods, combined with the techniques of the present time. She has special interest in the combining of natural and artificial light, shadow, the change of natural light and how materials reflect it. Her materials range from rubber to human hair and optical fibres. At the moment Hietanen is working with how natural and artificial light effects spaces and interiors. Works from the Technolace series (illuminated lace made of finely spun fibreoptic material) have been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the Barbican Centre in London and at Les Champs de la Sculpture in Paris. Hietanen was awarded the Finnish State Art Prize in 1999.