Kuressaare linnus, Saaremaa, 2012
Small Sculpture Exhibition, Tartu, 2013
Näituse plakat (pdf)
Sound installation, small sculpture
The installation focuses on human relationships, conscious and unconscious roles in them. The entire exhibition resolves paradoxically into dog training-inspired poses and gazes. Sound plays an important role in the installation.
Obedience and a feeling of joy when the owner or the one we want to please pays attention to us, praises us, plays with us… Every small gesture of kindness gives reason for even greater affection. We are on guard towards the respected one, ready to immediately rush in the direction indicated. Unfortunately, people almost never use the same tone of voice when talking to each other that they use with their pets. However, both alertness and attention are expected in pairs.
Relationships shape us more than we realize. At the beginning of a relationship, the boundaries between ourselves and the other disappear, and we are willing to give up much of our true nature. We have all sacrificed our souls, skills, desires, and bodies for the sake of a shared feeling. But what happens when the spirit of sacrifice becomes life-threatening? When there are no more kind words from our partner? When our eyes open and we understand the actual or changed behavioral patterns of both ourselves and our partner? Should we continue the same way, submit voluntarily and joyfully, or sullenly and with a rebellious servile attitude? Should we negotiate? Should we live separately?
These are the turning points where we realize that finding ourselves through relationships is not possible. Through relationships, we create ourselves.
