Joel Slotte: Museum of speculative anatomy
The collection of the Museum of Speculative Anatomy consists of two- and one-color screen prints completed at the end of 2023.
The works feature chimerical figures realized semi-improvised, such as anatomical cross-sections composed according to the form language of abstract sculptures, a combination of a sea urchin's backbone and a human skull, and fusions of parts of the cardiovascular system and rose bushes.
The museum shop sells shirts, canvas bags and skateboards during the exhibition. I often get to know new tools through their history and try to find an angle through which I could naturally approach the use of the tool. Serigraphy is a new medium for me, which I strongly associate in my mind with subculture objects, such as concert posters, illustrations of skateboard decks and band shirts. Through this, it seemed natural to make a serigraph exhibition based on the aesthetics of my own subculture, limiting it to one topic typical of death metal, i.e. the physicality and anatomy that have opened up to various (both explosive and slow) changes. Through the subject area, natural science illustrations realized as line etchings that are hundreds of years old and the precise use of lines found in them form an alliance with the more ragged trace of drawing.
Joel Slotte (b.1987, Kokkola) is a visual artist from Helsinki who works extensively in painting, drawing, ceramics and printmaking. He graduated with a master's degree in visual arts from the Academy of Fine Arts of the University of the Arts in 2016. He was awarded Young Artist of the Year 2021. His works have been exhibited, e.g. Museum of Contemporary Art in Kiasma, Tampere Art Museum and Galerie Anhava. Slotte's works include e.g. In the collections of Kiasma, HAM, Pro Artibus, Tampere Art Museum, Turku Art Museum and the Jenny & Antti Wihuri Foundation.