We are familiar with Mall Paris’s paintings and watercolours that are built up on laconic empty surfaces or the repetition of minimalist shapes, in which, from time to time, stray words appear. For Paris, a meaningful word, often with a poetic connotation, is like a colour or image. The forms created by Edith Karlson are, in one way or another, connected to bestiary. They are connected to an animal or a person that always alludes to the reason for its appearance. The meaning field of Mall Paris’s works is known only to her. However, the aesthetics of Mall’s work is apparent and it can be based firmly on the tradition of modernist art history. The generalisation of Edith’s ‘lumps’ (for this is what she calls her non-figural sculptural compositions) is not only based on the aesthetics of strictly abstract images, but indirectly recalls the bestiary that is so close to her heart. Thus, we are dealing with a meeting of sensitivities, as opposed to an aspiration to coordinate an integrated exhibition. Edith Karlson’s and Mall Paris’s watercolours form the basis, and now we must see how convincingly the sculpture unites with them.
Curator: Tamara Luuk
