Maria Stereo’s Dilemma is the summer sculpture at Tammerlampi pond

True to Stereo’s signature style, the piece is composed of broken ceramic dishes and tiles. Its influences include the ornate gilded gate of Louis XIV – the Sun King – at the Palace of Versailles, as well as the joyful, eye-catching aesthetics of circuses and carnivals.

– With Dilemma, I wanted to approach the everyday challenge of decision-making in a cheerful and forgiving way. The piece is amusingly personal – I often feel like a bundle of contradictions, there’s always some kind of dilemma going on, says Maria Stereo with a laugh.

The Tampere Art Museum has presented summer sculptures at Tammerlampi, located in the park of Hotel Tammer, since 2010 in collaboration with Tampere Infra. The earlier works include art from e.g. Jarno Vesala, Tuula Lehtinen, Matti Kalkamo and Tommi Toija.

Sculptor Maria Stereo (b. 1979, Rauma) is known for her expressive, decorative richness and playful kitsch aesthetic. She often uses recycled and broken porcelain items in her works. Stereo has held numerous solo exhibitions, and her art is included in the collections of various art museums and cities. She has also created public artworks, the most well-known of which is Ajaton (2019) – a five-meter cuckoo clock–inspired sculpture in Helsinki’s Vallila district, part of the HAM Helsinki Art Museum collection. Stereo graduated as a visual artist (BA) from the Fine Arts Program at Tampere University of Applied Sciences in 2011. She lives and works in Sahalahti, Kangasala.