Cornwall

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="665" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Tate-St-Ives-Outi-Pieski-RB-image-IMG_2447-1000x665.jpg" alt="Tate St Ives from outside " class="wp-image-32922" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Tate-St-Ives-Outi-Pieski-RB-image-IMG_2447-1000x665.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Tate-St-Ives-Outi-Pieski-RB-image-IMG_2447-800x532.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Tate-St-Ives-Outi-Pieski-RB-image-IMG_2447-768x510.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Tate-St-Ives-Outi-Pieski-RB-image-IMG_2447.jpg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



The iconic Tate St Ives, first created out of the old gas works behind Porthmeor Beach, which gives the entrance it&#8217;s unusual shape, and then expanded to include a new gallery, gives space to exhibit works by both modern British artists with links to the St Ives area as well as the work of other artists with cultural importance to modern art.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="863" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/01/10-Outi-Pieski-Rástegáisa-lágalaš-riektesubjeaktan-II-Sacred-Mountain-Rástegáisa-as-a-Legal-Person-I-2018.-Photo-Jussi-Tiainen-1000x863.jpg" alt="10-Outi-Pieski-Rástegáisa-lágalaš-riektesubjeaktan-II-Sacred-Mountain-Rástegáisa-as-a-Legal-Person-I-2018.-Photo-Jussi-Tiainen" class="wp-image-32618" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/01/10-Outi-Pieski-Rástegáisa-lágalaš-riektesubjeaktan-II-Sacred-Mountain-Rástegáisa-as-a-Legal-Person-I-2018.-Photo-Jussi-Tiainen-1000x863.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/01/10-Outi-Pieski-Rástegáisa-lágalaš-riektesubjeaktan-II-Sacred-Mountain-Rástegáisa-as-a-Legal-Person-I-2018.-Photo-Jussi-Tiainen-800x691.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/01/10-Outi-Pieski-Rástegáisa-lágalaš-riektesubjeaktan-II-Sacred-Mountain-Rástegáisa-as-a-Legal-Person-I-2018.-Photo-Jussi-Tiainen-768x663.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/01/10-Outi-Pieski-Rástegáisa-lágalaš-riektesubjeaktan-II-Sacred-Mountain-Rástegáisa-as-a-Legal-Person-I-2018.-Photo-Jussi-Tiainen-608x525.jpg 608w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/01/10-Outi-Pieski-Rástegáisa-lágalaš-riektesubjeaktan-II-Sacred-Mountain-Rástegáisa-as-a-Legal-Person-I-2018.-Photo-Jussi-Tiainen.jpg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



Alongside the main permanent galleries which do have a more obvious focus on the St Ives artists and other connections, including work by Hepworth, Nicholson, Wallis, Garbo and more, in February to May 2024, the Tate St Ives is hosting the UK’s first large-scale exhibition of work by Sámi visual artist, <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-st-ives/outi-pieski">Outi Pieski</a>. 



Her figurative landscapes, photographs and prints are shown alongside sculptural works, including a new installation titled Skábmavuođđu – Spell on Me!, 2024, created specially for the exhibition during her Tate St Ives residency at Porthmeor Studios in January 2024.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="750" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Outi-Pieski-at-Porthmeor-Studios-St-Ives-Jan-2024-©-John-Hersey-41-1000x750.jpeg" alt="Outi Pieski at Porthmeor Studios, St Ives, Jan 2024 © John Hersey" class="wp-image-32932" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Outi-Pieski-at-Porthmeor-Studios-St-Ives-Jan-2024-©-John-Hersey-41-1000x750.jpeg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Outi-Pieski-at-Porthmeor-Studios-St-Ives-Jan-2024-©-John-Hersey-41-800x600.jpeg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Outi-Pieski-at-Porthmeor-Studios-St-Ives-Jan-2024-©-John-Hersey-41-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Outi-Pieski-at-Porthmeor-Studios-St-Ives-Jan-2024-©-John-Hersey-41.jpeg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



Pieski is, in common with many of the St Ives artists, an artist whose work is connected to and rooted in the landscape in which she exists; through painting and installations, she explores the relationship between human and environment, including traditional knowledge and rights to land. Living and working in Sápmi (the region in which the Indigenous Sámi live, today divided between the nation states of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia) Pieski uses her work to consider and explore the concept of sacred places. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="689" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Outi-Pieski-installation-view-at-Tate-St-Ives-2024-©-Tate-Oliver-Cowling_01-1000x689.jpeg" alt="Outi Pieski installation view at Tate St Ives, 2024 © Tate (Oliver Cowling)" class="wp-image-32931" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Outi-Pieski-installation-view-at-Tate-St-Ives-2024-©-Tate-Oliver-Cowling_01-1000x689.jpeg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Outi-Pieski-installation-view-at-Tate-St-Ives-2024-©-Tate-Oliver-Cowling_01-800x551.jpeg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Outi-Pieski-installation-view-at-Tate-St-Ives-2024-©-Tate-Oliver-Cowling_01-768x529.jpeg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Outi-Pieski-installation-view-at-Tate-St-Ives-2024-©-Tate-Oliver-Cowling_01.jpeg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



The exhibition brings together a number of her earlier, visually very compelling, mixed media paintings which celebrate the landscape, alongside her more latter work of large-scale tasselled installations &#8211; which also reflect the various landscapes in which they are created &#8211; using a traditional Sámi craft practice, doudji, often used for shawls. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="667" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Tate-St-Ives-Outi-Pieski-RB-image-IMG_2424-1000x667.jpg" alt="Tate-St-Ives-Outi-Pieski" class="wp-image-32923" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Tate-St-Ives-Outi-Pieski-RB-image-IMG_2424-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Tate-St-Ives-Outi-Pieski-RB-image-IMG_2424-800x533.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Tate-St-Ives-Outi-Pieski-RB-image-IMG_2424-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Tate-St-Ives-Outi-Pieski-RB-image-IMG_2424.jpg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



These take the form of rows of hand-knotted tassels hanging from sticks in patterns and shapes, with the colours both from the landscape and also the traditional clothing from which the practice is based. The largest of these hang in the centre of the gallery, with the new Spell on Me! complementing Spell on You!, the colours both chosen for the ever-changing blues and greys and greens of St Ives bay outside Porthmeor Studios, and also the Sápmi polar sunset that never quite fades below the horizon.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
By practicing this often women-led way of making, Pieski seeks to strengthen sacred relationships between her work and her ancestral land, a concept known as ‘rematriation’. Made in collaboration with other Sámi women, these installations &#8211; which Pieski refers to as ‘three-dimensional paintings’ &#8211; destabilise the hierarchy between contemporary art and artisanal creative processes. 
</blockquote>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="667" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Tate-St-Ives-Outi-Pieski-RB-image-IMG_2391-1000x667.jpg" alt="Máttaráhku ládjogahpir/Foremothers´ Hat of Pride, 2017-21, an interdisciplinary project she has created with Finnish archaeologist Eeva-Kristiina Nylander, Outi Pieski Tate St Ives Cornwall February 2024" class="wp-image-32924" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Tate-St-Ives-Outi-Pieski-RB-image-IMG_2391-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Tate-St-Ives-Outi-Pieski-RB-image-IMG_2391-800x533.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Tate-St-Ives-Outi-Pieski-RB-image-IMG_2391-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/cornwall/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Tate-St-Ives-Outi-Pieski-RB-image-IMG_2391.jpg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



The final room of the exhibition is dedicated to Pieski&#8217;s work as an activist; this brings to St Ives an interdisciplinary project created with Finnish archaeologist Eeva-Kristiina Nylander using modern art techniques (based on Warhol&#8217;s pop art style works) to explore the complex legacy of the ládjogahpir, the horn headdresses traditionally made and worn by Sámi women. Banned in the 19th century, many of these hats ended up in collections and museums in various other countries, and the work features photographs of the ones that have been tracked down &#8211; amplifying the cultural discussion around the erasure of Indigenous people’s traditions.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-muddy-verdict">The Muddy Verdict</h2>



There&#8217;s a definite connection between Pieski&#8217;s work in relation to landscape and other St Ives artists, particularly in Spell on Me! created for the exhibition. In a wider context, Pieski&#8217;s thought-provoking consideration of the meaning and relationship between humans and nature, and our relationship with land and ownership, is something that Cornwall too is grappling with, with no clear answers. The activism element is challenging and visually engaging, giving a more obvious form to the conversation carried out in the rest of her work.



Good for: Anyone who has even a passing interest in modern art for a bit of culture on their beach trip; on a surface level it is visually compelling and at times beautiful, conveying texture and colour, and there&#8217;s deeper meaning too, if wanted. Also, as someone commented on social media, who doesn&#8217;t love a tassel &#8211; tactile and evocative! My 7-year-old, for whom all the chat about landscape and relationships was uninteresting enjoyed the tiny people carved out of reindeer horns, the depictions of trees, the sheer wonder of lots of brightly coloured hangings, and spotting the eyes &#8211; the more you see them, the more you spot them across the whole exhibition.



Not for: If you&#8217;re after an overt St Ives connection there isn&#8217;t an obvious one &#8211; almost all the work is of Sápmi (Finland / Norway with snow and dark trees); there are no literal seascapes here, and it&#8217;s modern art, so won&#8217;t appeal to the traditionalists.



The damage: Free to members and locals pass holders (£10 with proof of a TR or PL postcode) or £12 / £1 on 9 March 2024.



<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-st-ives/outi-pieski">Outi Pieski</a> is at Tate St Ives until 6 May 2024

First look: Outi Pieski, Tate St Ives, Cornwall

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