Merike Estna at kim?

Artist: Merike Estna

Exhibition title: Disposable Gloves Guide

Venue: kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga, Latvia

Date: July 27 – September 2, 2018

Photography: Ansis Starks / all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga

“Disposable Gloves Guide” is Merike Estna’s first solo presentation in Latvia. The exhibition elaborates on a set of themes that have been present in the artist’s recent practice. In her performative paintings and multimedia works in textile, clothing and ceramics, Estna is contemplating on the technology led conversions in contemporary lifestyle, which inevitably contribute to reshaping the social habits of human life. In a society that praises the convenience of automatization, we undergo a restless acceleration that is drifting today’s society away from the traditional labor. Disposable Gloves Guide questions the future of labor and unfolds the contemporary social concerns we might be facing the end of the world as we know it. The exhibition is a collection combining a selection of her recent works and new productions created for the exhibition at Kim?. The later are continuing a narrative Estna began deciphering during the Baltic Triennial 13 in Tallinn. They depict creatures essential both to the ecosystem and the human kind. The pit of snakes in her work suggests the change for better or worse-like snake sheds its skin to persistently renew, the world will have to regenerate too. The opening night was complemented by Merike Estna’s performance Red Herring. For the performance, the audience were served artist-crafted potions asinvitation to drink and converse.

As described by curator Maria Arusoo “Red Herring” engages painting as a stage for human interaction. Merike Estna’s practice incorporates what she calls performative paintings with allusions to the digital, the nostalgic, and a romantic reverance for parts of human existence that are mutating, melting or slipping away. Inspired by Aleksandr Pushkin’s A Feast In The Time Of Plague, Estna plays with our ideas of Romantic forms of representation and social space.

Merike Estna (born in Estonia 1980) lives and works in Tallinn, Estonia. She has graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts with a Bachelor’s degree in painting and from the Goldsmiths College, University of London, in 2009 with the Master’s degree in art practice. Her performative work has been exhibited at Chart, Kopenhagen, Performa 17 and Art in General, NYC, and Kiasma, Helsinki. Her solo exhibitions have been exhibited at Kunstraum, London, Karen Huber Gallery, Mexico City and others. She was awarded Konrad Mäe prize, Estonia 2014 and has been teaching at the Estonian Art Academy since 2014 and at Tartu Art School since 2016. Her works in public collections include: Kumu Art Museum, Estonia; Tartu Art Museum, Estonia; Loviisa City Collection, Finland.

Merike Estna, Disposable Gloves Guide, 2018, exhibition view, kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga

Merike Estna, Sticks from the wood, hints from the hood, 2018, sculptures as candles sculptures as fire, beewax

Merike Estna, Damage was reparable, 2017, acrylic on canvas, 300x490cm

Merike Estna, Sticks from the wood, hints from the hood, 2018, sculptures as candles sculptures as fire, beewax

Merike Estna, Disposable Gloves Guide, 2018, exhibition view, kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga

Merike Estna, A serpent, a hand and a nightcrawler, 2018, acrylic on canvas, 61cm x 45cm

Merike Estna, Disposable Gloves Guide, 2018, exhibition view, kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga

Merike Estna, In the shadows of a painting, grows an other much more vain thing, 2018, acrylic on canvas, 61cm x 45cm

Merike Estna, Disposable Gloves Guide, 2018, exhibition view, kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga

Merike Estna, There are more eyes then there is fire, but there is no need to see, 2018, acrylic on canvas, 61cm x 45cm

Merike Estna, Disposable Gloves Guide, 2018, exhibition view, kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga

Merike Estna, Kneeling banana/angel flew over my head on the 7th floor above the seabed, 2017, acrylic on canvas, 300x490cm

Merike Estna, Disposable Gloves Guide, 2018, exhibition view, kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga

Merike Estna, Tree trunks, serpents and other animals, 2017-2018, acrylic on plywood paintings as stages and benches /stages and benches as a paintings, 9 paintings on top of tree trunks 120cm x 120cm each, on various heights or leaning against the wall, 2 paintings 30cm x 120cm on top of tree trunks, acrylic on plywood