In an ongoing series of sculptural works entitled Villagers, Finnish artist Liisa Hietanen crochets 1-1, life-size versions of people in her hometown of Hämeenkyrö. On her website, Liisa adds:

I meet my models in natural everyday situations. The process of choosing a model is intuitive. The person depicted might be someone I meet in the library, in the locker room of the gym or walking their dog on the way home. I don’t know most of my models beforehand but as the process goes on I get to know them.
 
The slow handcraft techniques work as a counterforce to the accelerating pace in different areas of life. To me important values in my works are encountering someone very concretely, seeing the other for real and getting to know them slowly. I see these as relevant values and balancing actions especially in contrast to quick stirs and thin encounters in social media.
 
After settling in Hämeenkyrö I wanted my work in the village to be meaningful both for myself and the others living there. When each Villager sculpture is finished I bring them to public sites in Hämeenkyrö for the locals to see… Working in a community is an essential part of my work and I want to have a dialogue with the people directly in my surroundings.

 

Below you will find some highlights from Hietanen’s Villagers series. You can also find more of her artwork on her website and Instagram.
 
© Liisa Hietanen, Photos by Marjaana Malkamäki
 
[via Colossal]