ANSSI KASITONNI: Gentle Means and Easy Tasks

Anssi Kasitonni (b. Vilppula, Finland,1978) who wryly describes himself as the ‘country cousin of Jeff Koons’, makes epic homespun films and sculptures which reference popular culture and are filled with humour. The recipient of the 2025 Below Zero Finnish Art Award, and a former winner of Finland’s Ars Fennica Prize, Kasitonni is a well-known figure on the Finnish art scene. Now he is bringing his DIY aesthetic of crafting ‘fast’ sculptures from lo-fi materials glamourised in chrome, from rural Finland to the UK for the first time. His new show, Gentle Means and Easy Tasks runs at Beaconsfield in Vauxhall from 7 March until 26 April and admission is free. The Below Zero Prize awards a Finnish artist a commission to make new work with Beaconsfield which is housed in what remains of the 19th-century Lambeth Ragged School. Responding to the building’s mythologies, Kasitonni is creating a new sculpture which reimagines the grand pediment which once crowed the original neoclassical portico. Kasitonni’s pediment, made from cardboard, plaster and expanding foam, then chromed and painted in vibrant colours, features an enigmatic cast of characters, creatures and objects such as an elephant, a peacock and even a yellow submarine. Central to his monumental frieze, is the figure of Eliza Beaufoy, beloved wife of philanthropist Henry who was responsible for building the school for 1000 vagrant children in 1851 in her memory. By 1904 however, the land had been sold back to the Railways, who demolished two of the neo-classical wings to widen the viaduct. This left only the Girls’ wing which has been occupied by Beaconsfield Contemporary Art since 1995.