It is the eve of Christmas Eve, and we are standing in the museum’s entrance hall in the morning twilight with conservator Marja Halttunen waiting for the arrival of designer Heikki Orvola. We last met him 14 years ago when the exhibition Heikki Orvola Design – retrospektiivinen näyttely was completed in our museum. The exhibition was on display 5.6.-6.9.2009 in a temporary exhibition space. At the time, Orvola donated a great number of glass and ceramic items of his own design to the museum. There are almost four hundred items in total. Some of the items are on display in the two display cases in the museum’s second-floor entrance hall, and most of them in the cabinets of the museum’s collection storage room. The artist arrives, as charming and pleasant as ever.
Heikki Orvola introduces the exhibition. Festum collection, of which the majority is from the Northern Ostrobothnia Museum’s collection, is on display in the display case.
Orvola came to select loan objects from the museum’s collections for the summer 2022 exhibition, which would be held in Riihimäki in the Finnish Glass Museum. The exhibition, Heikki Orvola – materiaalin virtuoosi, is on display at Riihimäki 6.5.–23.10.2022. Glass, ceramics, as well as fabrics and embroidery designed for Marimekko, and enamel and cast-iron items are on display. The exhibition is assembled from the collections of museums and private collectors. The exhibition presents the artist’s works for the first time in all its diversity.
First, Orvola chose Illusia, Festum, Fennica and Polaris glassware from the museum display cases. During the day, we moved to the museum’s collection storage room in Rusko, where the next selection was made. All in all, more than a hundred items from Oulu were sent to the exhibition. In addition to the collections mentioned above, the items included 24h, Carambola, rustic filigree goblets, unique glass vases from the 1970s, Bepop, Andante, Moreeni and various representational tableware. Orvola also selected the replacing items from the museum’s collections, which we then put on display in the display cases on the museum’s second floor of the next day together with the conservator.
Conservator Marja Halttunen cleaned all items going to Riihimäki and packed them carefully in the museum’s own plywood cabinets to be transported to Riihimäki in the museum’s van. The transport took place in March 2022 by museum exhibition technician Jussi Klemetti and conservator Marja Halttunen. The objects are to be returned from Riihimäki in November.
Conservator Marja Halttunen is preparing items for delivery.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t make it to the opening due to Akava’s strike week, but at the end of August we had the opportunity to visit the exhibition, guided by the maestro himself. At that time, the Finnish Glass Museum organized responsible museum days on the topic of glass, and we had the opportunity to listen to interesting presentations on glass collecting, photography, and glass forgeries. Heikki Orvola talked about his own career, which included going to school in Oulu, studying in Helsinki and working in Nuutajärvi, designing for Iittala and Arabia.
Particularly interesting in Orvola’s stories is always the part when, as a schoolboy, he stood in front of the display window of what was then Pohjan Some on Pakkahuonekatu in Oulu and dreamed of making equally beautiful and exquisite objects. Also, the story of how he ended up sewing and making beautiful embroidery artwork in his free time while working in Nuutajärvi. There was a bus from Nuutajärvi once a day at five to Toijala, coming back at eight, and Orvola though:
For me, there are so many amazing works in the exhibition, but among the newest ones I very much liked the Amazon fabric designed by Orvola for Marimekko. The Northern Ostrobothnia Museum will receive also this fabric in its collections.
Amazon fabric.
The Northern Ostrobothnia Museum will acquire in its collections a glass work designed by Heikki Orvola for the Riihimäki exhibition this year, which was made in Glass Circus in Nuutajärvi. The museum will also acquire one of Orvola’s embroidery works.
A glass work designed by Orvola for the exhibition.
Rusina embroidery work.
Text: Chief curator Eija Konttijärvi
Images: Curator Arja Keskitalo, conservator Marja Halttunen, Curator Maisa Lukkari, Chief curator Eija Konttijärvi
Heikki Orvola
Heikki Orvola is an artist, many of whose tableware collections and decor items have become iconic and beloved to Finns, such as the Kivi candle lantern, Aurora glassware and the 24h tableware series designed for Arabia.
He graduated from the ceramics department of the University of Art and Design Helsinki in 1968 having studied under teachers such as Kyllikki Salmenhaara and Kaj Franck. Invited by Franck, Orvola went to the Nuutajärvi glass factory, where his career with glass began. During his career, he has designed both serial production items and unique art glass.
He received the Pro Finlandia medal in 1984, the Kaj Franck Design Prize in 1998 and was awarded the title of professor in 2002.