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A
nna Heinämaa is a sculptor and a writer. She has held solo exhibitions in her native city Helsinki and participated
in group exhibitions in Finland. She is also the author of novels, plays, short stories, and documentary texts.
In her sculpture she uses ceramics and bronze. The themes and motives derive from much of the same problematic as in her literary work. She often depicts strong but
tragic female figures - this being a typically Finnish tradition, going all the way back to the Finnish national epos Kalevala.
"I am not quite sure why this particular theme is so close to me, and why I see it as so pronouncedly national. Maybe it has to do with our severe
Northern climate--or all the different wars that we have been through. Due to the loss of population and the fact
that we are so very few, work traditionally thought of as men’s work has for centuries been shared by Finnish women.
However, these women have still found ways of combining their masculine roles with being daughters, mothers, and
wives - being feminine. This contradiction interests me, and somehow it always finds its way into my art.
At the same time, I believe that the problem is universal, and therefore I find myself naming my work with
references to our common culture and heritage: Joan of Arc, The Amazon, Japanese Female Warrior, Saint Catherine of Siena,
Slave Mother, etc.
Some people find it surprising that I pursue these two artistic careers, the visual and the literary. I myself do not see a contradiction there, because in my mind they have to do with one and the same thing. For me, a beautiful piece of sculpture is ultimately beautiful rhythm with meaning, and so is a beautiful piece of literary work.
There is a strong narrative aspect to my sculpture. The figures I depict carry with them stories, sometimes even an entire saga that reaches way back beyond the life span of one individual.
Often people ask me what the underlying story of a particular piece might be. I tell them that the story is right there, in the work of art itself. It can be seen and felt, it can
be evaluated, it can even be discussed, but I cannot paraphrase it, put it into other words. I can try, but I will
always fall short of what the work of art itself has to say.
In my exhibitions, it has been interesting to see how people with very different backgrounds can relate to my sculptures and the emotions they convey. But I guess that is the whole point of creating art. If your work succeeds, you come face to face with such fundamental aspects of your own existence, of your own human nature, that you also touch something universal."
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