For this two person exhibition with artist Britta Benno I transformed the gallery space into a decrepit living room. Around the room I placed traditional Estonian textiles found at thrift stores, onto which I added architectural photographs of Tallinn and additional embroidery, the neat floral patterns sprawling out of control.
These linens evoke domesticity and the feeling of home, heightened by their installation in relation to an armchair and coffee tables, re-creating a living room tableau. Yet the apocalyptic imagery depicted on the textiles creates a dissonance which, combined with the absence of actual people in the scene, that raises unsettling questions about what happened to the former residents. The installation’s placement opposite the dystopian animation by Britta Benno heightens these feelings, the burning sounds coming from the speakers that could create a feeling of comfort and nostalgia while looking at the domestic scene, become more ominous as one turns around to see housing complexes on fire. Does this scene represent the last vestiges of a lost society about to be permanently erased by the inferno outside?
These linens evoke domesticity and the feeling of home, heightened by their installation in relation to an armchair and coffee tables, re-creating a living room tableau. Yet the apocalyptic imagery depicted on the textiles creates a dissonance which, combined with the absence of actual people in the scene, that raises unsettling questions about what happened to the former residents. The installation’s placement opposite the dystopian animation by Britta Benno heightens these feelings, the burning sounds coming from the speakers that could create a feeling of comfort and nostalgia while looking at the domestic scene, become more ominous as one turns around to see housing complexes on fire. Does this scene represent the last vestiges of a lost society about to be permanently erased by the inferno outside?
