This article focuses on Heini Aho’s two site-specific installations, A Poem by a Plumber (2021) and
Thirsty Giant (2017), which enable natural forces, such as wind, sun, and rain, to become co-
creators of the artworks. Both installations are situated in relatively remote places where
creative dialogues can emerge with natural forces and the given physical environment. The artist
intentionally created what can be called semi-stable constructions for both of the works to make
visible and sensible the agency of natural forces and to explore how the human and “more-than-
human” agencies are creatively entangled in reciprocal relations. Thus, each installation unfolds
in an open-ended and autopoietic (self-creative) way as they entangle with the environment in a
sympoietic (co-creative) manner. Instead of mutually opposing aspects, I understand the
autopoiesis and sympoiesis as two sides of the very same event. To highlight this understanding,
I employ the combined term “auto-sym-poiesis” to study Aho’s works in this article. I argue that
agencies in nature and art are not isolated from the environment or each other. Instead, they are
creatively entangled in an indeterminate, continuously unfolding process of relationality.