Photo: Ahmed Alalousi

Fleurs du Mal/Flowers of Evil

Andy Best-Dunkley (FI/UK)
& Merja Puustinen (FI)

inflatable sculpture, 2022

What form will plants take if their genetic structure has changed because of exposure to soil contamination, radioactive radiation, pollution and human population overload and artificial changes to the natural environment? Clambering and climbing over the roof and sides of the Kubu building, Merja Puustinen & Andy Best’s large inflatable sculpture, draws on poisonous plant formation, arrangement and aesthetics, the French poet Charles Baudelaire’s collection Les fleurs Du Mal (Flowers of Evil, 1857), Freudian dream logic, death visions and streams of consciousness, to create a speculative and potentially prophetic vision of future plant morphology.

Andy Best-Dunkley and Merja Puustinen are an Espoo-based artist duo whose transdisciplinary media practice spans over three decades of collaborative works, ranging from early Internet art, there lead the field in creating 3D online words, and used game and mobile platforms to create works that tackle social and political themes in playful, provocative and physical ways. Combining sculpture, performance and installation, since the mid-2000s they have been creating large-scale interventions that take the form of inflatable sculptures for museums and urban spaces. In 2012, the duo founded Espoo Kunsthalle, an initiative to bring critically engaged art to suburban areas, and are currently running an artistic residency to investigate the environmental challenges facing the Baltic Sea. Best-Dunkley leads on sculpture teaching and development within the Center for General Studies, Aalto ARTS.