The symmetry of nature: Takahiro Iwasaki’s visit to Oulu Finland for Climate Clock

Hiroshima-based Takahiro Iwasaki is one of seven artists working with scientists selected by Invisible Dust’s Director Alice Sharp, curator of Climate Clock.  Climate Clock aims to reconnect us to nature’s time. Takahiro visited Oulu during the snow season to learn more about the local context and community in which he will create his work, alongside meeting a snow hydrologist.

In Climate Clock, each artist will create a permanent public artwork, offering a moment of pause at each trail location. This is a major programme for Oulu European Capital of Culture 2026, opening in June 2026. 

Oulu is one of the northernmost cities in the world, located just below the Arctic Circle. It serves as a kind of winter mirror to climate change, warming at four times the rate of the rest of the Earth. Climate Clock explores how this accelerated warming is affecting weather patterns and natural systems. These changes, while part of everyday life and easily taken for granted in Oulu, appear extraordinary to visitors: the brilliant whiteness of winter with the sun’s low, glowing light across the horizon; dark rivers winding through undulating snow; ice roads crossing the frozen sea; and vibrant, short summers with lush greenery. Local customs, such as fishing on the sea-ice fishing dating back to prehistory, are also part of this rich context.

Alice Sharp was drawn to Takahiro Iwasaki’s use of miniature scale in his installations and his exploration of architectural reflection. She felt his ideas would bring a different perspective of one of Oulu’s beautiful countryside areas, Ylikiiminki—part of the Climate Clock art trail. Alice first encountered Takahiro’s work when he represented Japan at Venice in 2017 (see image). In the Japanese Pavilion, Iwasaki’s ‘Turned Upside Down, It’s a Forest’ featured small-scale objects and landscapes alongside intricately crafted three-dimensional wooden representations of traditional Japanese pavilions.

Takahiro has exhibited internationally, including at the Seoul Museum of Art in South Korea, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art in Russia, the Queensland Art Gallery in Australia, and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France.

When Takahiro Iwasaki arrived in Oulu in March, he was amazed to see the snow was still very deep and thick on the ground.

At Ylikiiminki the first thing he encountered was the beautiful local bright yellow church, designed and built by the renowned 18th-century Finnish architect Jacob Rijf.  A local man guided Iwasaki around the church and its historic interior, including its wooden pulpit and carved ceiling. Iwasaki was immediately drawn to the church’s symmetrical shape. Jacob Rijf, trained in the neoclassical tradition, followed the Golden Ratio, echoing the symmetry of nature.

Walking behind the church to the Kiminki River, which was incredible for Takahiro, it was frozen solid and covered in snow from bank to bank. This will be the location for his future sculpture in a small field where the families swim in the Summer. A leap of imagination was required to think of it green with nature and fast flowing water.

Takahiro Iwasaki was also impressed with his ability to walk across the top layer of snow which felt like flying, as the surface was a metre up from the ground! 

His Oulu 26 hosts explained that this phenomenon is known as hanko panko, which occurs when the top layer of snow freezes hard in late Winter (typically around March or April). Although it may seem solid it is often soft underneath, and occasionally your foot breaks the surface and you fall down towards the ground which is a bit of a shock!

The location is also home to a traditional annual summer tar festival. In the past, tar was produced in Oulu by taking sap from local trees and burning it slowly in large mounds. The resulting tar was exported around the world to seal and waterproof ships.

The next stage of Takahiro’s idea development was to explore the nature of snow itself. Alice researched suitable scientists to collaborate with him and found Oulu University snow hydrologist Pertti Ala-aho, who coincidentally also grew up in Ylikiiminki where Takahiro’s sculpture will be located.

Through several online meetings with Alice and Pertti Ala-aho, Takahiro learned about snow hydrology research methods, including how scientists measure the water content of snow (see cartoon).These measurements help determine whether rivers will be full, if flooding might occur, and whether there will be enough water in the future.

With climate change, Pertti explained, snowfall is changing, not only in volume but in water density and content, raising implications for the future. Takahiro really liked Pertti’s method of assessing snow density: digging pits and testing snow layers using pencils and fingers, alongside scientific instruments. He was also inspired by Pertti’s close–up images of snow crystals.

After his visit, Takahiro reflected:

Scientists see things that often go unnoticed by the ordinary eye. Sometimes, they watch the snow with the perspective of a bird, and other times, with the focus of an insect. After talking with Pertti Ala-aho about his research on snow, I was reminded of the quiet wonder that we stand on a blanket of countless tiny structures, crafted in the atmosphere.

Takahiro Iwasaki

Climate Clock

Launching June 2026 in Oulu, Finland – one of the world’s northernmost cities, located just below the Arctic Circle – Climate Clock is a permanent public art trail intertwining art, science and nature to inspire environmental awareness and reconnect us with nature’s time.