Virsi is the Finnish word for "hymn". This is a sculptural consideration of transformation, memory, and traces of materials. The work examines the residue that is left behind after flame (cremation) — physical, symbolic, and spiritual. It is guided by the curved, eroded forms of bones, neither as an anatomical study nor memento mori, but as symbolic impressions of that which existed. From 3D scans of animal bones, the sculpture reconstructs the organic shapes with industrial and synthetic materials.

The allusion to cremation is allegorical, not physical. It is an outline: a ceremony in which fire reduces the body to elemental bits, ossifying memory into substance. In Virsi, the idea of post-cremation remains is translated into sculptural terms. The work does not represent death, but lingers on that which follows it: the quiet, transformed condition of the thing that once experienced life and purpose.

Slag comes from the same process of burning. It is used as the base material of the work Virsi. Slag is a dense, glassy byproduct of metallurgical production. It carries its own identity of combustion and discard. Mixed with resin, it becomes both contained and preserved. The composite is used as plaster to cover a body sculpted of high density EPS foam. Though the materials originate from different worlds such as biological, industrial and synthetic, they converge through their shared exposure to processes of firing.

The surface is later coated with silver leaf, an ephemeral and glowing thing that has long been used on holy objects, mourning objects, and ritual objects. Hand-applied, it constitutes an evanescent skin that reacts to light and oxidization, oscillating between radiance and decomposition. It does not want to cover the underlying shapes, but to raise them in order to sanctify them with the hand and the eye. Virsi is a hymn taking shape of scraps, flame, and surface. It is open to transmutation, neither consumed nor vanished, but transformed. Between body and object, between debris and relic.

2025