Antti Laitinen's "Bark Boat" at Nettie Horn

Photographs, a video and a boat document the Finnish artist's sail across the Gulf of Finland in a boat made of old pine bark. Antti Laitinen's second solo exhibition in the UK is open from 6 May to 19 June.

"Bark Boat" is the latest in a series of performances where Antti Laitinen embarks on a personal journey, pushing the boundaries of his physical endurance and braving the natural elements, to engage with the world in a collective mission to stage mythologies and erase the boundary between success and failure. As in most of his previous projects, "Bark Boat" originates from classical Finnish tales and cultural imagery.

The young sailor along with his boat, made of ancient pine bark collected from the floor of the Finnish forest, confidently undertook the conquest of the Baltic Sea with the firm intention to reach the welcoming island of Naissaar situated northwards of Tallinn in Estonia on the 7th of August 2010. During a nineteen hour long journey the small vessel braved the elements of this unpredictable Sea. The concept of this lone adventurer transiting physically from one land to another on a handmade raft in an epic journey across the sea is an extension to previous projects by Laitinen reunited under the title "The Island Trilogy".

Antti Laitinen was born in Finland in 1975. He lives and works in Somerniemi, Finland.
More information: Nettie Horn