Maija Fox
“Sometimes, I am struck by the brutality and beauty of scale: cranes, workshops, clouds, root systems, stone drill bits.”
Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your background?
I am a visual artist based in Helsinki. I grew up between the UK and Finland, between rural villages, fixing and building with hands, knowledge of land, bricks, trade, forests, lakes and the cityscapes of East Helsinki. My childhood was shaped by a rural yet nomadic lifestyle.
When I was 16 I moved to Norwich to pursue art rather than A levels at city collage. I moved between the art and construction department, pouring concrete and playing with welding. I then moved to Scotland to do my BFA in Sculpture & environmental art at Glasgow School of Art.
I went back to Helsinki to reconnect and hangout with my grandma, which spontaneously led me to completing my MFA at kuvataideakatemia. I been living here for now about 5 years. The academy at the time was the best thing and was such a positively unexpected surprise. There was a big warehouse for the sculpture department also in the east of Helsinki, a bit further out. There was all kinds of tools and machines and the freedom to learn independently. I spent weeks mastering aluminium welding and years trying learning everything about metal casting. From ceramic shell molds to DIY recipes such as sand and molasses liquid sugar.
ways that roam us, Installation, 2024
ways that roam us (detail)
ways that roam us (detail)
Your sculptures combine industrial and natural elements, highlighting their points of connection. What draws you to working with metal, and how do you see it interacting with the more organic themes in your work?
My art is defined by material-based explorations. I create sculptures and installations through an intricate combination of metal fabrication techniques, such as metal casting. I highlight the intersections between intersectional feminist and environmental perspectives, reflecting on the identity of utilitarian objects, material processes, spirit, value and function within their respective environments. I examine the intersections and histories of craft, engineering, manufactured objects, and their relationship to the environment. I respond to and investigate tools and machine processes that I find parallels with systems and mechanisms in nature, such as the dispersal of seeds or the support structures of reeds in swamps or wetlands.
I choose metal as a medium to create a contrast with the sensitivities of nature/environmental identity and my personal experience with it, and to facilitate a sense of intimacy that is characteristic of handcrafted work. One part of the casting process is modelling with wax, its a material where you can leaves visible traces of touch that carry through to the cast metal object. The process of working with these materials creates a fascinating interplay between the industrial scale of production and the intimacy of handwork. My motivation to delve deeper into the intricacies of material processes is driven by a desire to gain a more profound understanding of the intricate nature of the environment itself. The material properties I work with serve as a medium that allows me to explore and express ideas. They also reveal new dimensions in my observations of the built/natural environment and the engineering solutions that define our world.
My practice is centred on aluminium casting but in combination with in other alloys and fabrication processes, including welding. I am just super fascinated by the possible processes, and material properties, it feels endless and that I am learning something everyday.
I create works that are sensitive to their environment, blending industrial processes with a rural perspective, which is a reflection of my background. The choice of material is intuitive, offering a personal perspective on the tensions between public and private spaces, and the power dynamics inherent in urban development and access to industrial metal working spaces as a female.
Your work explores utilitarian objects and their histories. When selecting objects or forms to incorporate into your sculptures, what guides your choices, and how do you think these references shift when cast in metal?
The objects and references of forms are usually deriving form personal observations of my surroundings, or are related to handwork, labour, the intelligence of nature and always to my position as female metalworker.
My choices are influenced by engineering practices, the parallels in construction mechanisms and the mechanisms used by plants to disperse seeds; including wind, water, insects, birds, fish, and animals, to find interconnections between invention, artistic practice, nature, and construction. I am looking to find the wobble of interaction that is blurring and encapsulating the communication of interior and exterior, the mechanical processes and motions created by the wind. To seek out the weaving and swaying of devices, structures, and moments; to find the point where the wobble of mechanisms, systems or utilities finds a hesitation - a time and place of crossing paths. It could be, a basket, fence, spanner, cubicle structure or wing nut. There is delicate humour that comes from the fragile world translated into solid sculptures. I find an insight and pleasure from the unusual contrasts of material i use and context of my work.
I feel the works become increasingly brutal when cast in metal. These stories, and references become so physical and engage in discourse with the industrial material world. My practise incorporates process of historical techniques, from weaving to modelling, to welding, and casting with modern materials.
A Maple Wingnut; with lineage it lands, St. Chads, 2024
A Maple Wingnut; with lineage it lands, (detail) St. Chads, 2024
Your sculptures often have a strong physical presence, creating structured spaces within a room. How do you think about the relationship between your work and the surrounding space, and how important is scale in your process?
The physical presence is really importance. It is a reflection of the systems and structures that surround me. Sometimes, I am struck by the brutality and beauty of scale: cranes, workshops, clouds, root systems, stone drill bits, etc. This is a key element in the interplay between intimate and industrial, private and public space, its my personal narrative playing with the scales of the physical world. I want to interact with the different scales of the environment, systems, organic, emotional or industrial…
I feel that the scale is an important conversation and contact points between different beings, human, non human and different elements, the ground and the air, the city, workshop, field or swamp, the very surface of the ground and layers hidden deep beneath the ground. I want to create a dialogue between my work and the places and environments I navigate; the city sky, connecting elements…
Tell us a bit about how you spend your day / studio routine? What is your studio like?
I recently moved to a new studio in East Helsinki, an old factory area opposite an old water tower. I have a car mechanic space there, and there are a lot of interesting places nearby.
My routine is always changing, and I am constantly moving around. I have a material and physical practice that takes a lot of time because there are many layers and stages to making a work. Sometimes I work in different spaces and workshops.
My days are spent welding, mould making, spending weeks on wax models, nights in my friend's workshops watching ovens, building ovens, firing plaster moulds, metal casting, building equipment, fixing equipment, fixing castings, tools, finding materials, grinding. I make every part of my work myself so there is a lot that goes on everyday; everyday I work with my hands.
I am inspired by materials and tools, and observing my surroundings. I love the journey from home to studio, where I get to see and think about the city I live in, and it gives me a lot of energy and inspiration.
a spanner for a cloud i saw slowly expanding
A poem; made from thoughts on the gestures of time
What artwork have you seen recently that has resonated with you?
That's a really difficult question. I'm fascinated by so many things, I have to say more often I am consuming and resonating with machine manuals, books about aeroplane inventions or materials found in the environment. But the artwork that's had a lasting impact on me is 'Platinum' by Selma Selman. I was totally captivated by the tiny platinum axe, crafted from dismantled catalytic converters, a stunning manifestation of the value of materials, energy, labour and the spiritual/ usefulness of objects/tools and how we interact with them. It feels so personal, I can relate so much to the importance of this axe as it has been a similarly important resource in my own background.
And I've been revisiting Winne Herbstein's STUDWORK recently, which I saw at Glasgow International some time ago the film traverse the different roles within the building site. Studwork depicts a community in Glasgow that has gathered around the learning of a trade. This highlighted the feminist welding collective Slaghammers, the City Building apprenticship programme in Queenslie and the Women in Construction course at City of Glasgow College.
Winne is also the founder of Slaghammers, a metal workshop for woman, trans and non-binary people in Glasgow. This project has been a constant source of inspiration for me!
Is there anything new and exciting in the pipeline you would like to tell us about?
Yes! I am currently working on an exhibition at Sculptor gallery Helsinki A Base For A Crane. This will open 28.02.25. I am excited about this as I have been experimenting with new old making and metal casting techniques. There will be all new works in the exhibition.
I am also working on a project with curator Maija Rudovska at Studja in Latvia. I will be working there with a local blacksmith and hosting feminist welding workshops with the local school. Later in 2026, I will have a solo exhibition at Sinne gallery, and I am currently developing and facilitating more accessible and feminist metalworking practices in Helsinki.
All images courtesy of the artist
Interview publish date: 10/03/2025
Interview by Richard Starbuck
