Springtime Fishing, 2015
Jaakko Pernu
The works by Finnish sculptor Jaakko Pernu (Kälviä, 1958) are large, created for public sites and mostly made of organic materials, especially of wood. “I use wood and–especially–brushwood to design forms that combine the natural and the human in elegant ways”, explains the artist whose career began in 1988. Pernu already familiarized himself with the properties of wood whilst still a child, assisting his father in the building of boats. He mostly uses branches and twigs found near the locations of his works, and combines them to elaborate site-specific objects.
The sculpture created by Pernu for the Gilf Promenade in Meran/Merano consists of more than 600 branches that he intertwined to an oval shape. The artwork interacts with the Passer River’s water–a connection emphasized by the title, which refers to the fishing season in spring.