We were in Prague Quadrennial last June. Thanks for your visit! Here now or there then.
If you didn’t have a chance to lie on our bed in Prague, you can listen to the audio play Resting home for working women by Aino Aksenja on Soundcloud.
Works at PQ23 Bee Company
Hexagon, 2021-
Tent, Bee Company’s studio, sculpture: repurposed sails, metal frame, turned midpole
Ina Niemelä
INSIDE THE HEXAGON:
Resting home for working women, 2022
Installation: sound piece, 15:15 min; old iron frame bed; quilt, pillowcase and eye pillow made from old kitchen towels embroidered with initials; fragrant herbs collected from Sanctuary inside the eye pillow
Aino Aksenja
Made in collaboration with the artist’s mother Liisu Vartija
Sanctuary, 2020-
Video documentation, 33:39 min &
47 documentation images, 11x15cm (can be leafed through) of
Living installation: beehives, flower garden and gazebo, and the artists who take care of them / are taken care of by them
Tullisaari Park, Helsinki
Aino Aksenja & Ina Niemelä
Love first, 2022-
Sculpture: wooden box, beeswax of Tullisaari bees from 2020-2022, pieces of porcelain and glass found in the soil of Tullisaari
Ina Niemelä
Andrena Humilis, 2020
Terracotta vessel, Finnish red clay
Part of the collaborative project Critically Endangered Species
Catharina Kajander
Working outfits of Bee Company, stained and dyed with plants, minerals, soil etc. from Tullisaari park
Ingvill Fossheim
Instax photographs of Bee Company’s journey from Helsinki to Prague by land and sea
Aino Aksenja
Herbs and flowers from the Sanctuary garden, the journey and Prague, including:
- Nepeta × faassenii / catmint / mirrinminttu
- Agastache foeniculum / anise hyssop / anisiiso
- Melissa officinalis / lemon balm / sitruunamelissa
- Origanum vulgare / oregano / mäkimeirami
- Salvia officinalis / sage / salvia
- Salvia nemorosa / woodland sage / lehtosalvia
- Lavandula / lavender / laventeli
- Knautia arvensis / field scabious / ruusuruoho
- Centaurea cyanus / cornflower / ruiskukka
- Trifolium pratense / red clover / puna-apila
- Leucanthemum vulgare / ox-eye daisy, dog daisy, etc / päivänkakkara
- Quercus robur / oak / tammi
Rag rugs on the floor, some from previous spaces of work and of importance to Ina, some made by Aino’s mother Liisu Vartija
OUTSIDE THE HEXAGON:
Gardener’s quilt, 2022
Quilt: recycled cotton fabrics, plant dyed wool
Ina Niemelä
ALSO IN THE SPACE
- market table from the happening series Laajasalo Grassroots Market (2020-)
- organza with propolis from the hives
- skep hat made of Kentucky bluegrass and rattan
- tent weights of shungite and volcanic rock
- bunches of oregano from Sanctuary garden
- Aino’s and Ina’s gardening bags
- vase gifted to Ina from Aino with a changing arrangement of flowers picked in Prague