Tartu Art Museum, Estonia
January 14 – March 20, 2016
Solo exhibition at Tartu Art Museum, Estonia, curated by Peeter Talvistu
“The ground floor of Tartmus with its four exhibition rooms has been transformed into an environment that I can only describe as a space shared by nature and art. Tree trunks erected between the floor and ceiling are surrounded by ceramic objects created by the artist using her original technique, folded curtains and canvases covered with patterns in various hues of beige, grey, green and orange familiar to those who know her style. The journey starting from the bookshop takes viewers down a boardwalk, somewhat similar to those built over wetlands, to the end of the space and the path, leaving them surrounded by white salt and faced with a video screen showing landscape views. The journey is accompanied by a sound composition by Juhan Vihterpal consisting of distant sounds and voices that evoke in the visitor a vague idea of a parallel reality.
Laura Põld floats somewhere in between the familiar and the strange, nature and culture, a position that is perhaps most interestingly conveyed by another, earlier exhibition of hers, “Das Ende der Landschaft, das Ende der Stadt” (Prigglitz, Lower Austria, 2013), or rather the title itself – the end of landscape, the end of the city. Põld is a double agent in both worlds – an artist in nature and a force of nature in the art gallery. Her works are an example of the fact that there is no real contrast here – culture is simply nature at a higher level of complexity.” – Piret Karro, Kunst.ee, 1/2016
Photos by Anu Vahtra
