Kogo gallery, Tartu. 25.11.2022 – 28.01.2023
Laura Põld with Andres Tolts. Common Threads, Polar Bear and Elephant
Curated by Šelda Puķīte
Šelda Puķīte: “Common Threads, Polar Bear and Elephant, a solo exhibition by Laura Põld, was developed in dialogue with the visionary Estonian painter Andres Tolts, whose work played an important role in shaping postwar Estonian modernism through experimental approaches to urban space, design, architecture, and pop aesthetics. The exhibition approached Tolts’ artistic universe as a fluid and imagined interior where different temporalities, materials, and visual languages overlap. Drawing inspiration from Tolts’ paintings and from the apartment he shared with artist Mare Vint, Laura Põld created an installation composed of steel structures, threads, modules covered by hand-tufted rugs, and spatial fragments that seemed to shift between recognizable urban forms and abstract, unstable objects. The works extended the architectural and anti-design sensibility present in Tolts’ practice while simultaneously introducing a softer, materially sensitive and tactile sculptural language. The exhibition explored how art history can function as a living and nonlinear space rather than a fixed narrative. Through layered materials, fragmented forms, and spatial compositions, Põld examined the possibility of constructing environments where past and present coexist, continuously reshaping one another through contemporary artistic practice.”
Photos by Marje Eelma
