7/29/10

Installation room COMFORT ME AGAIN

… made for “Experimental Station Laimdota” {ESL} during Contemporary Art and Music festival in Cesis, Latvia.



Laimdota is a Latvian girl’s name, common in folklore, and means  “given by ‘laime’ “ -  I cannot find a good translation for ‘laime’ though, i think there is no such name in English - it is something like a profound peaceful happiness plus a little bit of pure luck and a bit of deep wisdom.

My work for the ESL was a deeply personal meditation, a joyful playroom of perplexed happy soul, installed in a 10 square meter room in an old forlorn beautiful house, full of flubdub and rubbish. To me it was like writing a poem.
I'll try to deliver it to you through a small photo story. 


{The forgotten heart. Materials used: silicone heart, plastic flowers and mushrooms, oil paints, butterflies, cobwebs, dead spiders and their dead victims of different species, some of them possibly unknown to Entomology} 



{Closeup of the heart} << love the way how this reads, should call a whole show by this phrase some day.. nay, maybe too sweet.. 


Little Salome playing again. This is a self portrait actually. I want the world to be perfect and beautiful. Deer is breathtakingly beautiful but the butt is ugly and debases the deer. So, I cut the butt off, and the world becomes perfect.}
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Installation of the little Salome; together with a religious text book-herbarium from 70’s. Homemade on typewriter for illegal distribution, as such books were not allowed in Soviet times in Latvia. Found forgotten in a tramp obsessed basement among cat-wetted flubdub.}
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Tiny mixed media fragmentary paintings on the walls >>see some closeups below>>}
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{view of the whole room above} 


{The materials used for the moulding: my lace and tulle wedding dress self-made through sweltering summer nights, plastic butterflies, cobwebs, dead spiders and their dead victims of different species, some of them possibly unknown to Entomology, all disguised with golden spray paint and star glitters. >> see some closeup pics below>>}






{The floor scattered with crushed sweet flag leaves and roots. It was a common tradition in olden times Latvia to use sweet flag plant this way in summer fiestas, as it scares insects and leaves a sweet unmistakable scent. It was dizzy, almost swooning in my little sun heated room.}


{‘ant tracks’ left on the wall}


{'plastic surgery for Mama Nature' angel overlooking the place. Mama Nature must be beautiful!} 


 And this is a tapestry project for another room - Mama Nature gives birth to Emily, and Emily gives birth to dreams:



4 comments:

  1. agree with paul, wow! saw your work in person jana, as we stopped in cesis city to enjoy the festival, while driving through baltic states, and, in that house and everything, it was like finding a jewel in ruins...............
    some other nice pieces too, but yours was our favourite!!!!!!!

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  2. Thank you so much Paul & Estella!!

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  3. Looks like a truly amazing little show!
    Love the tapestry!!!!!!
    =0.0=

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