Eeva-Liisa Puhakka :
Wild Blue (Hall 1)

About fifteen years ago, I heard for the first time about the blue cows living along the Latvian coast. According to folklore, they lived in the sea and came ashore to graze just before sunrise. Mother of the Sea (Jūras Māte) gave some of the cows to the families of Livonian (Livs) fishermen who had died in storms. One September weekend I set off to hike in the forests near the Latvian coast, but I did not find the blue cows. Even so, I have not been able to get them out of my mind. 

The video of the blue cows is the first part of a three-part video work series. The series explores Latvia's blue (proto-)cows, Scandinavian mythology about the creation of the world, and the cow's significance within it. The upcoming parts of the series will examine the rewilding of cattle and their return to nature, as well as the transformation of the rural landscape and the impact of the disappearance of livestock on the entire environment. 

I have been working on sculptures made from recycled leather: old hides have been transformed into sculptures — heads for the walls and abstract, amorphous forms set in space. The materials are old, worn leathers and cowhides, including one that belonged to a cow of my father's cattle over thirty years ago. 

The hides were once attached to flesh, carrying life. Now, with somewhat conflicted feelings, I have shaped them into sculptures — reflecting on contemporary cattle farming, while at the same time aware that the material carries the memory of my father, his life's work — and also the fact that I myself am his flesh and blood. 

The blue cows and the old hides meet in these works at a time when questions of nature, the status of animals, and humanity's relationship to the environment are becoming ever more relevant.  

Eeva-Liisa Puhakka is an interdisciplinary artist whose work spans kinetic sculptures, video, installations, bio art, and olfactory art. In her most recent works, she explores human-animal coexistence, rural depopulation, body-related taboos, and the problems, language, and realms of olfaction. She was a founding member of the Scent Club Berlin collective and received the Kouvola City Artist Prize for 2020–22. She is a member of MUU ry, the Finnish Sculptors' Association, Kouvola Artists' Association, and the chair of the Antares Cultural Association (2023–2026). 

More about the artist: www.instagram.com/eevaliisapuhakka 

This work has been supported by the Arts Promotion Centre Finland and the Kone Foundation. 

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