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20.02. - 10.04.2019
Joint exhibition by mother KELLI VALK and daughter KAROLIINA KAGOVERE “Stories of One Family”
The works of both artists spring from their family stories, which are narrated differently, using different media, allusively or explicitly. The watercolour series by Kelli Valk have been inspired by the crafts and the flower garden created by her grandmother Helene; there are images of the nature, the garden as a safe refuge, the everyday items and activities that surrounded her childhood. Kelli Valk’s world got its start from grandmother Helene's magic fairy-tale world, which was full of star-children, mother Sun, father Moon, home sprites and elves, all drawn on fabric and embroidered. One could never be bored in the company of those home sprites: something new happened every day. The other secret place was grandmother’s flower garden, where the white garden bench symbolised the tender, summery feeling of happiness, and the colours of the flowers blooming there – from the palest light pink to the deepest wine-red – are something the painter still remembers.
Karoliina Kagovere has printed family photos of everyday scenes on textile, and then embroidered them over. This was an activity that helped to overcome homesickness for her family while abroad. When living and studying in Greece she had her family members who were back in Estonia much more on her mind, and quite naturally this resulted in her wanting to work with family photos in her photography graduation project. One summer in Estonia she took pictures of her family members in as mundane everyday moments as possible, and in Greece she printed the images on fabric and started to “rectify” them with colourful threads and textiles, changing her faraway close ones into fairy-tale characters and the images into golden, icon-like pictures. The exhibition elegantly values memories, creates a personal mythology and has a high degree of generalisation.
Kelli Valk graduated from the Estonian Academy of Art in graphics in 1978 and is a member of the Association of Estonian Printmakers and the Estonian Artists’ Association. She has participated in exhibitions in Estonia and abroad since 1978.
Karoliina Kagovere lived in Greece and studied in the Department of Visual Arts and Art Sciences of the University of Ioannina from 2004–10. During her studies she mainly focused on photography and graphics.
The
exhibition was supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment.
