Opens
Thursday 7 May, 6pm - 9pm for Late Night Art Belfast
Closes
Saturday 30 May
PS² opening hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 12pm - 5pm
the smallness of things / a pequenez das coisas
PS² Project Space
Silvia Koistenen
About the exhibition
“…it is a kind of sympathetic magic to handle something so pointless with such reverence.”
Wintering by Katherine Maya, pg. 22
‘the smallness of things’ is an installation – a constellation of everyday objects, remnants of living, in dialogue (what do they whisper to each other?), converging for a held time. They bump into and live side-by-side in each other’s hummmmmm – picking up each other’s frequencies in colour, sound, and texture.
The exhibition gently brushes against ideas of hosting, care, play, and consumption. You are invited to witness these objects as they gather for a period of time, later to be dispersed again into the world (in new/other configurations – a terrain of endless possibilities, as functioning or non-functioning objects).
A text accompanies the objects as a sort of map, script, or alphabet - unconsciously exploring objects, habitual rituals, and language – toying with the memories, poetics, and nostalgia of her mother(‘s) tongue, Brazilian Portuguese.
‘the smallness of things’ was developed during a two-month residency at PADA Studios, Portugal, from February to March 2026, supported by Culture Moves Europe.
About the artist
Silvia Koistinen is a visual artist, writer, and curator from Clare, of Finnish and Brazilian heritage, currently based in Belfast. Her interdisciplinary practice brings together objects, words, and space to form installations which explore the essence, agency, and materiality of objects, as well as our perceptual experience of and relationship to/with them. She identifies as neither a sculptor nor object-maker, but as a gatherer/holder/supporter of objects, things, and practices. Since graduating with a BA of Fine Art from NCAD in 2020, her practice has been supported by Arts Council Ireland and Arts Council Northern Ireland. She is a studio holder with Flax Art Studios and a former Co-Director at Catalyst Arts.
PS² is supported by The National Lottery through Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Belfast City Council's Artists' Studio and Makerspace Organisational Grant, Arts & Business NI's Blueprint Investment Grant, and Dormant Assets NI through The National Lottery Community Fund.