Faculty researchers, alumni and doctoral researchers featured in exhibition exploring human-forest relations at Kemi Art Museum

Researchers, teachers, doctoral researchers and alumni from the Faculty of Art and Design are participating as artists in the exhibition With the Old Pine. The exhibition examines the significance of forests at a time when climate change, biodiversity loss and the use of natural resources are at the centre of both public and scientific debate. It opens at Kemi Art Museum on 30 October 2026.

The exhibition is closely connected to the University of Lapland’s research and artistic activities. Its themes relate to the university’s strategic research focus areas Sustainable Naturecultures and Arctic Change and Adaptation. The artworks explore the ecological, cultural and experiential dimensions of forests, as well as human relationships with changing environments.

The exhibition is curated by Maria Huhmarniemi, Professor of Art Education at the University of Lapland.

“Artists approach the forest as a living community, a site of cultural memory and a condition for future life. The exhibition invites us to reflect on how we can act on behalf of forests at a time when natural environments are under increasing pressure from resource extraction and construction,” Huhmarniemi explains.

The exhibition brings together artist-researchers from different career stages within the Faculty of Art and Design.

Participants include Emeritus Professor Timo Jokela, Associate Professor Mari Mäkiranta, Professor Maria Huhmarniemi and doctoral researchers Esa Pekka Isomursu, Marjo Pernu and Antti Stöckell. Pernu and Stöckell are also members of the faculty’s teaching staff.

The faculty’s alumni represented in the exhibition are Arttu Nieminen (Audiovisual Media Culture), Tanja Koistinen (Sustainable Art and Design), and Tommi Yläjoki (Design). The exhibition features also artists Misha Del Val, Satu Kalliokuusi and Raisa Raekallio.

Art offers perspectives on environmental change

The artworks address themes such as logging, biodiversity loss, the forest industry, shrinking carbon sinks and the rights of nature. In a city such as Kemi, whose history is closely linked to the forest industry, these questions are both timely and sensitive.

University of Lapland alumnus and media artist Arttu Nieminen presents the video work Awareness 2.0, in which Arctic landscapes intersect with questions concerning human consciousness and technological development.

“In this work, I return to the key landscapes and themes of my artistic career. I explore the relationship between humanity, culture and technology at a time when the boundaries of consciousness appear to be expanding toward artificial intelligence,” Nieminen says.

Emeritus Professor Timo Jokela presents two installations. His installation Tracking the Capercaillie examines how environmental change affects both ecosystems and northern ways of life.

“As the use of forests changes, so too do people’s relations with forests and the forest-based way of life, an ecoculture. The work asks what we stand to lose if the ecological and cultural connections embedded in forests become weakened,” Jokela explains.

Artistic research and doctoral studies represented in the exhibition

Many of the artworks featured in the exhibition are connected to long-term artistic research projects, highlighting the role of art as a form of knowledge production.

Associate Professor Mari Mäkiranta presents artistic research through photographic art. In her series Tree People, she explores relationships between humans and trees through portraiture.

“My works ask whether we might approach trees and forests through care and encounter rather than exploitation. At the same time, they invite reflection on the kinds of relationships people form with particular trees and places,” Mäkiranta says.

The exhibition also includes artistic works connected to two doctoral research projects. Antti Stöckell presents works that form part of his research on arts-based environmental education, ecocultural sustainability and the artist as a local nomad.

“My artistic practice is based on ecocultural ways of moving through environments and working with materials. Embodied movement is an active, meaning-making phase of my artistic process. For my winter art, it can even mean hours of skiing in the forest before creating the work,” Stöckell explains.

Esa Pekka Isomursu presents visual haiku photographs that are part of his doctoral research on authenticity in landscape photography of northern nature.

“Art can make visible experiential and emotional knowledge that words alone cannot convey. In a visual haiku, two visual observations meet to create a new meaning greater than the sum of its parts, as well as an emotional experience,” Isomursu says.

Art participates in environmental debate

The exhibition’s curator, Professor Maria Huhmarniemi, also participates in the exhibition as an artist and researcher.

Since the early 2000s, Huhmarniemi’s research has focused on the social and environmental impact of art. Her doctoral research examined artists’ participation in environmental debates, and since then she has continued to study art activism and the potential of art to contribute to social change and sustainability transformations.

In her artistic and scholarly work, Huhmarniemi combines environmentally engaged art, research and development activities. Her research is based on arts-based action research, in which she examines and develops opportunities for artists to participate in social and environmental influencing. Alongside producing art projects that address environmental issues, she also writes about their significance in her research.

“Artistic practice can bring experiential, emotional and cultural perspectives into environmental debates that are difficult to access through scientific knowledge alone. With the Old Pine demonstrates how art can contribute to discussions about forests, biodiversity and sustainable futures,” Huhmarniemi says.

The exhibition highlights forests as places of memory, experience and multispecies coexistence, while encouraging visitors to reflect on human responsibility in a changing environment.

“Universities and artists have an important role to play in environmental and societal debates. This exhibition is our statement in support of forests,” Huhmarniemi concludes.

The exhibition is organised in collaboration with Art Äkäslompolo Association, one of whose founding members is Huhmarniemi. The association develops art projects that support northern nature conservation and promotes artworks that strengthen people’s relationships with nature while contributing to environmental discussion.

The exhibition has been produced by Kemi Art Museum in collaboration with the participating artists and Art Äkäslompolo Association. Support for the exhibition has been provided by Kemi Art Museum, the Finnish Museums Association and the Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Lapland. The REBOUND project has supported Mari Mäkiranta’s artistic practice. It is a six-year project (2023–2029) funded by the Research Council of Finland’s Strategic Research Council.

With the Old Pine demonstrates how artistic practice, research and societal engagement are intertwined in the work carried out within the Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Lapland.

With the Old Pine

Kemi Art Museum
30 October 2026 – 9 January 2027
Vernissage: 29 October 2026 at 6:00 pm