CUTOUTS

Project ‘Cutouts’ is the result of a 1-month artist-in-residence program in Finland. Mindful of the harmful impact of architecture industry on the environment, I decided to document a large site in the Finnish forest, which was brutally clear-cut cut few years ago. Its ecosystem got damaged. It became a surreal cemetery of the forest. The timber industry leaves a destructive footprint on nature, it interests me in the context of architecture as a discipline and the ways it is being materialized. Where do the construction materials come from and what are the environmental costs of its sourcing. Through this project, I want to look at radical clear-cutting policies with a critical lens. The main aim was to make a record of the damage to the landscape, with the tools and vocabulary that architects use to communicate ideas. Sketches, inventory, measurements, scale, drawings, models, and maps are means of translating real spaces into visual narratives.

Practicing profound observation, I was going to the site almost every day. It became clear to me that the remaining trunks are the most meaningful elements of that space. Artifacts of the human intervention. Section of the tree contains a lot of data. By measuring it, and analyzing the amount and shapes of rings, one can get information about the age of the tree, climate changes, weather conditions, and many others. Their forms are a pure record of time. I documented some of them, translated them into a composition on 1:1 scale, and created a large quilted textile. Exploring what forms an architectural drawing or model can take, I stretched the medium into a new matter.

Project created during the artist-in-residence program at TUO TUO in Finland, August/September 2023