Matti Sumari's 'Worker Ant After Work' at SIC Helsinki Explores Freelance Labor Through Sculptural Lampposts

Matti Sumari's exhibition 'Worker Ant After Work' runs from 14 March 2026 to 26 April 2026 at SIC in Helsinki, Finland. The show features sculptures of depressed, freelancing lampposts with hunched postures, made from 1990s Malmö street lights and anodized aluminium. Outside the gallery, ear-shaped sculptures hang at a suburban station as part of a social experiment. Inside, lighting oscillates between work and rest cycles. Other works include 'Whose head has the noseyest ears?' (2026), 'Posh neighbour' (2026), and 'Unemployed cabbage head' (2026), alongside scattered apple cores and hollowed cabbage heads. A cocktail table resembling solar panels is made from cabbage that, when sliced, evokes brain x-rays. Sumari works from a defunct ketchup factory on the outskirts of Malmö, sourcing materials from a nearby landfill. He uses homemade industrial processes like casting found aluminium, dyeing sculptures red and green in electrified acid baths, and boiling them in vats. The exhibition text is by Sophia Persson, with photography by SIC. The show critiques contemporary freelance labor, drawing parallels to historical shifts from hunter-gatherer leisure to industrial overwork and the gig economy. It references Swedish folklore about keeping the evening and the Industrial Revolution's extension of the workday via artificial lighting. The artist's practice transforms everyday objects and involuntary social sculptures through resource-conscious refinement.