Sulkala Art Courtyard in Espoo

Jari Sulkala (b. 1968) had a long career in the maintenance of technical equipment in factory plants. Long days were spent underneath, on top of the machines and sometimes even inside. He often returned home very tired and frustrated. “My life’s work was completely invisible, there was nothing visible left of years of hard work. The pandemic and climate change were raging around us, and now there was a war. A frightening thought crept into my mind: what if this country and the world might no longer exist when I could retire in ten years’ time.”

Sulkala decided to spend the rest of his life as he wished. He left the factory behind and became an artist. He bought a scrapped motorcycle and made a sculpture out of it. The expensive device had plunged off the road into the woods and started to transform, but that was only the beginning. Sulkala noticed organic shapes in the parts of the bike. By simply dismantling and changing the place of the parts, he conjured up a deer jumping out of the bike. It is suitable as a manifesto for its author’s ideology. The direction and values of life are now definitively different.

In the yard stands an igloo-like structure made of steel, just completed. The planetary shape hides a herb garden in the shape of a mandala.

Sulkala plans to build a few more things in his yard, and he is already ready for visitors to visit the yard to see the works.

Text and photos: Veli Granö, ITE Mappings, ITE Uusimaa Region (2022–2024), MSL. Photo of Exhausted by Jari Sulkala.