Being together, the beauty of life

For more than 50 years, a block of Carrara marble stood in the courtyard of Eronen’s studio home, left over from the marble used by Wäinö Aaltonen and Erkki Eronen to repair the relief entitled “The Goddess of Freedom Crowns Youth” (1935/1959) at Helsinki University, which had been seriously damaged during the bombing of Helsinki in World War II.

One evening, while watching television, Eronen was sketching at random, when an idea emerged from his subconscious, as out of nowhere, ready and complete. He describes the creative process:

‘The piece was a success because it was free of any deliberately chosen purpose or conscious objective. It appeared out of nowhere – the hand did what it did.’

Once the idea had matured, Eronen set to work with an intense passion. Even at the age of 87, the artist could stand outside in the open air for five hours straight, carving and polishing the piece by hand. His wife Elli could barely coax him inside for lunch!

This multi-dimensional sculpture represents two figures whose relationship takes different forms, depending on the angle. As Eronen explains, every relationship contains many different components:

‘When a man meets a woman, and when a woman meets a man, many things happen between them: eyes twinkle, the hair falls out, faces twist and smoothen again, there are legal provisions and whatever…’

The marble block hid an imperfection, in the place where the man’s face was supposed to be, and this affected the final shape. Consequently, the final sculpture does not exactly correspond to the original drawing. Eronen left the flaw untouched and allowed it to define the final form, leading to the man’s slightly mischievous expression.

The title of the sculpture comes from the Finnish expression ‘Kaksihin on kauniimpi’ which translates freely as ‘Two is better than one.’ In other words, “Being together is the beauty of life.”

About the artwork

Theme(s): People
Material(s): Carrara marble
Art form(s): Sculpture
Object type(s): Freestanding object

Details

Exhibit Number: 27
Variation Number: 1
Date: 2013
Height: 57 cm
Width: 35 cm
Depth: 32 cm

Back to the gallery

Related works of the art form: Sculpture