“The theme of sculptor Nora Tapper’s sculptures are flowers and saints, but also sculpture gardening and legends. In Saints, Tapper is fascinated by some basic essence of humanity, which still moves people today. The earliest known gardener in Finland (Sweden-Finland) did his work in the garden founded by Duke Juhana in Turku in the late 1550s. Stories about the saintly figures of the Catholic Church come even further back, from the 4th to the 13th centuries.

In her studio, Nora Tapper says that the figure sculptures in the exhibition were inspired by the wooden saint sculptures in Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran churches and art museums. Especially in medieval (1100–1520 in Finland) sculptures, he is fascinated by their awkward position, the sculptures’ human features and proportions. The legends associated with the figures of St. George slaying the dragon and Kristoforos of the wood-carved saint sculptures in the exhibition were so interesting that they had to be made into a sculpture.

Tapper states that “it came about when I was thinking about my own saints” whether the princess needs a savior or whether the savior is the princess herself in the legend of St. George and whether Kristoforos could take the girl on his shoulders and carry her over the stream and not Jesus, as the story originally goes. The third sculpted figure in the exhibition is Barbara, a house builder. Tapper wanted to depict in the sculpture how the daughter left the tower where her father had imprisoned her, according to legend, and took her life into her own hands and built herself a house.

The starting point for the sculptures on the windowsill has been fallen branches found in the forest. In the study, Tapper placed the white ceramic constructions he had made earlier on the wooden beams and suddenly saw in front of him an amaryllis and a tulip, for which he built the pots out of wooden strips. When I look at the sculptures Vanha päsapuu and Huuto, I come to think that even in the most beautiful garden there can be something that breaks the traditional aesthetic harmony. These sculptures combine an interesting and slightly repulsive design language, when the string-like structure of ceramics and untreated wood meet each other.

When we talk, it becomes clear that one of Tapper’s starting points when sketching the sculptures in the exhibition has been the art of painting. “While looking at the paintings, I have focused my attention on perspective. In the paintings, the perspective is often exaggerated, not realistic. I have brought objects and furniture from some paintings and my own imagination into a three-dimensional space. By carving wood, I have “painted” the space.” This “painting” can be seen in Tuumaaustauko and Uni sculptures, on the surface of which you can see the shadow of a tree. However, it does not come from the Kukkapuu sculpture next to it. Is it coming from a dream?”

—Kari Alatalo
art critic

The exhibition has been supported by the Art Promotion Center

More Info:
noratapper.net