Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Finnish artist Sirkku Ketola stands by her print and a ribbon of paper to be featured in her performance work “A Body Called Paula.” She will give her final two performances from noon to 2:30 today and Wednesday at the Finnish American Heritage Center in Hancock. An opening reception for Ketola will also take place at the gallery from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday.

HANCOCK — A piece of art is taking shape in Hancock.

“A Body Called Paula,” an installation by Finnish artist Sirkku Ketola, will be at the Finlandia University Gallery at the Finnish American Heritage Center until Oct. 14. She assembles the piece over four performances, the final two of which are happening this week.

Ketola mixes performance and screen printing in the piece, which develops over four days, ith the phases symbolizing the elements of a full life.

Over two-and-a-half-hour sessions, Ketola hand-prints intricate patterns on a ribbon of fragile paper, which loops back numerous times over each performance.

Ketola began working with serigraphy 20 years ago as an art student. She loved the mistakes that crop up in working with analog technology. With experience, those flaws in her process went away.

She wanted them back.

“They give a twist, because life isn’t like an HD image all the time,” Ketola said. “Our eyes don’t see really well, and we don’t hear really well. We are not perfect. That doesn’t exist.”

She decided to print on a larger scale. It’s more taxing on the body, she said. And with that inevitable fatigue comes the mistakes that make things interesting.

“When you make the size bigger, it will always surprise you,” she said.

Instead of standard serigraphy paper, she uses a finer calligraphy paper. She’s able to find some at art stores wherever she goes, and it’s easy to take with her afterwards.

To add colors, she works with water-based colors.

“It gives me technical challenges, so I know I will continue making mistakes,” she said.

Ketola performs as a silent character, Paula, consumed by the activity. The name has multiple meanings. It’s derived from the Greek “paulus,” meaning small. In Finnish, it means both “ribbon” and “trap.”

She builds layers day by day, each with their own meaning. Yellow, the first day, symbolizes “Light,” and was followed Monday by red, “Passion.”

From noon to 2:30 p.m. today, Ketola will perform “Knowledge,” with a cyan design.

“The blue opens the image, so you start to see what’s there,” she said.

The series concludes with “Darkness” from noon to 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Gallery director Carrie Flaspohler learned of Ketola’s work in 2018 during a visit to the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York City. Ketola was originally supposed to come in 2020, then 2021, with both trips being scuttled because of COVID.

Flaspohler appreciated the chance to bring performance art to Hancock.

“I thought that was great to bring that sort of innovative art process here,” she said. “The work’s beautiful. The final piece is so intricate, and the colors are gorgeous. And you can just see the craft that goes into it.”

“And there’s a risk to it, too,” Ketola said.

An opening reception for Ketola will also take place at the gallery from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday. Ketola will give a talk starting at 7:20 p.m. The reception is free and refreshments will be served.