A Commanding Conversation with Jiri Geller

Photo: Perttu Saksa

Jiri Geller is a Finnish, Helsinki-based artist known for his detailed sculptures exploring the contemporary pop culture phenomena.  He graduated from the Lahti Polytechnic Institute of Design, Faculty of Goldsmith (MA). He has exhibited widely across Europe and internationally in art galleries, museums, and art spaces such as Zetterberg Gallery, ARCO Madrid, Turku Art Museum, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Gallery Zero, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China, LARM Gallery and elsewhere. Jiri is also the co-author of the book Jiri Geller: Fuck the World!

I had the pleasure of asking Jiri about how the visual arts help him convey messages that words can not, the role of nihilism in his work and creative process, and so much more.

UZOMAH: Do you do anything to get yourself in the mood to create? Or is it something that comes naturally?

JIRI: It comes naturally. I really wanted to get an indoor job, so I’m always completely motivated.

KILL YOUR DARLINGS ,2014 painted resin, steel 59 x 45 x 39 cm

U: What challenges have you faced in terms of becoming an artist?

J: I have always worked hard to make my art look easily done, with an illusion of effortless feeling. Even though being an artist is a constant struggle, mostly with time and money, it feels to be my destiny and meant to happen.

U: How do the visual arts help you convey messages words can not usually say?

J: I often choose something unexpected or almost impossible to sculpt. Though I want to be loved as an artist –  I also want my art to be unsettling, almost inappropriate.

KILLING TIME, 2020 spectra coated resin, painted fiber glass 37 x 45 x 37 cm

U: Can you explain the role of nihilism in your work and how it shapes your creative process?

J: In the early 2000s, my work was sort of a brew of 60’s California counterculture tradition, underground comics, hot rod, psychedelics, as well punk rock, and the era millennial void. I was exploiting Disney iconography and our culture symbols for art of postmodern nihilism and irony. 

During time my work has been moving toward classical sculptural matters, such as our reliance on the security of materialism and material existence. Today, my art is about space, time, and cosmic humor.

U: How does art help you not be confined to your roots in Finland but, with the use of materials and within specific designs, be able to reach out globally through art?

J:  I suppose wood would be distinctly a Finnish material, but I haven’t really used it so far. My materials vary from plastics to different metals and blown glass. The subject determines the need. I don’t think or try not to think of my roots in Finland; it’s not really a relevant question. My childhood was filled with American culture; I was soaked with sugar and plastic. So it is what I’m made of; I can’t help it.

CANDY FOREVER 2023 painted glass fiber, steel, magnets 216 x 75 x 96 cm

U: How is art an activist's most vital tool?

J: I’m not into changing the world; I just want to make art that looks better than reality, a moment of bliss that lasts forever…

U: What is your favorite aspect of creating art?

J: That hypnosis kind of flow state when working on a piece.

Photo: Petri Kaipiainen

U: If you could have dinner and interview with one artist, literary or visual, who would it be and why? What would you want to discuss?

J: I’d love to have dinner with baroque genius Gian Lorenzo Bernini and hear his thoughts about, um, uh, like project management and money… Hell! I’d love to hear his thoughts about like anything.

For more information, please visit Jiri’s website, and you can find him on Instagram.