‘THE SCULPTURE PARK ITSELF IS AN EXTENDED SELFPORTRAIT AND A STORY OF HOW A SOUL IN SEARCH OF BALANCE AND JOY DEVELOPED.’
above A camel rider. Self-portrait, 1989. previous pages View of some of the 255 yoga sculptures, in various states of decay.
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bought ten apple tree seedlings and set up an orchard in his garden. He would never leave this place. In his adolescent anxiety, Rönkkönen found his way back to the lake where he used to go swimming as a child. He dug up some clay from the shore where he had spent his happiest times as a child, and moulded the clay into a small figure of a man. It was a sort of dreamlike self-portrait and the first step along the path to becoming an artist. His entire oeuvre can be seen as a continuation of this little figure. The sculpture park itself is an extended self-portrait and a story of how a soul in search of balance and joy developed. Its various sections and sculptures depict the artist’s life: dreams and fears
when growing up and, eventually, the signs of growing old and giving up. Rönkkönen made his first life-size figure as a conversational piece and placed it in the most prominent place in his garden. The hand of The Caricature of Man (1961) still waves to greet passers-by. Rönkkönen told me that the figure’s cross-eyed stare was meant to have a ‘hypnotic’ effect on people. Even the first sculptures managed to do their job. The remote garden, situated by the border with the Soviet Union, attracted great numbers of curious visitors. The artist-to-be was able to witness the magical power his art had over the audience. This