Hansasilta



This work, made from dried beans and lentils, was created for the group exhibition Stracciatellalla, held at the Hansasilta shopping centre in East Helsinki in spring 2022.

The shopping centre area consists of three main buildings and is known for its ethnic grocery stores and food markets.

Outside the exhibition space, the floors are covered in marble tiles, while orange tones dominate the wall paintings and signage throughout the mall.

For the bean mosaics, I measured the marble floor tiles and divided their dimensions in half. The larger mosaic corresponds to half the size of a marble tile, while the smaller mosaic — the orange and yellow one — is half the size of the larger piece.

Using “local” materials was important in the creation of these floor paintings, so the beans and lentils were sourced from a nearby Turkish food market. I carefully selected the legumes to echo the colours of the marble flooring and the orange signage outside the exhibition space.

Over the three months the work remained installed on the floor, the humidity of the space caused some of the legumes to begin sprouting.