Artwork

For this site-specific artwork at 87 Peter Street, Jaakko Pernu designed an artistic depiction of a gigantic air pressure map adapted from a North American weather forecast. In his proposal, Pernu expressed his concern for the changing climate and hoped that his piece would spread awareness of “one of the greatest threats facing the planet,” in a visual way.

The Finnish sculptor and environment artist, Jaakko Pernu, has been working with natural materials, often on large scales, for over 30 years. Many of Pernu’s works are inspired by his early life, when he helped his father construct wooden boats on the west coast of Finland. By observing his father’s techniques for manipulating wood, Pernu learned how to create elegant forms of his own. The materials that Pernu uses in his sculptures are often found near his installation sites, physically connecting the piece to the specific and local environment it is set to occupy.

Pernu has created many public works for sites around the world, with Canada being a country that he returns to often. Some of his installations can be found at the Oulu Museum of Art (Finland), the Kotka Sculpture Park (Korea), the Arte Stella (Italy), the Fortum (Moscow), the Sculpture in the Wild (United States), the Vancouver Convention Centre (Canada), and Toronto’s Concord Park Place (Canada).