Vala Boucht

Biography

Vala (she/her, b. 1997, FI) is a Helsinki-based designer and material-led artist currently completing a master’s degree in Contemporary Design at Aalto University. With a background in hands-on exploration, Vala has worked with a diverse range of materials including metal, wood, textile, glass, and ceramics. Drawn especially to clay for its tactility, her recent work engages with ecological worry, transformation, and the ethics of making. 

Foraging marine clay. Credit: Fanny Kajela

The Waiting Urn

2025

approx. 37 x 30 cm

Finnish marine clay from Kolko, Iniö

My artistic research was ignited by the Baltic Sea's current state and my worry for it. In my practice-led research, I am diving into my relationship with the Baltic Sea, reflecting through material exploration. While looking at materiality from feminist and philosophical perspectives, I express concern for the sea and the need to care for it. I am working with common reed and marine clay, foraged from the seabed of a small bay in Iniö, Turku archipelago. In working with this material—witnessing it shift from matter to material—I have created a lidless urn. An open vessel holding grief for a eutrophicated body of water, not yet ready to be sealed, quietly hoping for a brighter future.