The artist talks about the birth of the gigantic cone installation

Giant pine cones made by Jesse Kitinoja and Macu Makkonen have been hung in the Kiekonlenkki outdoor recreation area in Sanginsuu, a popular area for Oulu residents. The pine cone sculptures can be found hanging from trees along the jogging trail and rising from the ground in the heather.

Jesse Kitinoja

The collaboration between my uncle Macu Makkonen and me started in late 2022; I was sketching a large pochard’s egg with a surface made of shingles for an art competition and asked my uncle how he would go about creating such an object. While I did not win the competition, the idea of a sculpture covered with shingles stayed with us.

Macu brought back a particularly impressive cone as a souvenir from a holiday in Rome, which inspired him to create cone-like sculptures. After some experiments, the conventional flat aspen shingles were replaced with curved forms cut from the surface of the wood. These ‘scales’ from the cones were nailed to the surface of carved logs of a suitable shape. The sculptures are made of spruce and aspen logs and comprise about 1,200 hand-carved aspen scales. Left outdoors, the aspen will develop a beautiful silver-grey patina over time.

A home for the sculptures was found in the Kiekonlenkki outdoor recreation area in Sanginsuu. The giant cones are a reminder of the local history: a seed extraction plant, where seeds shaken off from dried cones are collected and bagged, once operated in the area. The plant used to employ young people from the area in particular.

We held two workshops in Sanginsuu on a hot weekend in July 2025. With the help of enthusiastic and hard-working participants, we sculpted 250 new scales for the cones from trees felled in the spring and nailed together two new cones. The heatwave lingered into the days we carved and hung the works, and the hanging was made extra exciting by the discovery of a wasps’ nest inside one of the cones. We let the colony, which had moved from Seinäjoki to Oulu, stay put in the cone it had chosen.

Now, with their small doorways, the six giant cones hanging between trees and mounted on rocks look like the dwellings of some unknown creatures.

Is this a hopeful fantasy about what people’s dwellings and relationship with nature might be like in the future – or are the structures inhabited by a species that will follow humans?

A big thank you to Riitta-Johanna, Raimo, Aimo, Satu, all our enthusiastic sculptors and everyone who made this project possible!

IS ANYBODY HOME?, installation, Macu Makkonen & Jesse Kitinoja, spruce and aspen, natural stone (2025).

The work is located along the Kiekonlenkki trail. Departure is from the parking lot of Kiekonmaja, Kiekonmajantie, Oulu.

Photos and videos of the page: Satu Pietilä

Macu Makkonen and the nephew, architect Jesse Kitinoja, have designed and made the sculptures of the pine cone installation as a collaboration between generations.
In their summer workshop, Jesse Kitinoja and Macu Makkonen gave advice on how to make shingles from aspen wood into scales for giant cones. The workshop attracted a large number of enthusiastic volunteers.
Jesse Kitinoja in front of a finished cone sculpture at Kiekonlenkki. In the background, nut benches can be found next to the Sanginkonnu art checkpoints as resting and admiring places.
The initial idea for the cone sculptures comes from Macu Makkonen. He was inspired to experiment with the sculpture as a souvenir from a handsome pine cone he picked in Rome.
The name of the cone sculpture series Is there anyone at home? arouses curiosity as to whether there might be inhabitants and life inside the cones. And what kind?
Rapids Pilot in winter forest in November 2025. Photo Riitta Johanna Laitinen.

The organisers of the Sanginkontu art trails

The art trails have been designed in accordance with the principles of sustainable development

We would like to thank all our sponsors and supporters