“Landscapes… Angelo, I ought to be able to describe at least one of the landscapes that has made me stop, that has enclosed me in its sweet prison and made me who I am…”
Emil Tode, “Border State”
The exhibition Pictures of You at the Pärnu City Gallery Artists House by Triin Kerge and Aksel Haagensen focuses on landscapes that the artists have personal connections to: “We have both lived away from Estonia and have therefore perceived foreign landscapes as home as well as been able to see the landscape back home as if through the eyes of an outsider.” Patterns are the common thread between both artists at this exhibition – the patterns depicted in textile as well as behavioural ones passed down from generation to the next.
This is the fourth exhibition that Kerge and Haagensen have made together: Off We Go! at ARS Project Space (2020) and Tartu Art Hall (2021) and Hopscotch at EKA Gallery (2021). Their collaboration is characterised by an interest in how historical events continue to have an effect on people several decades and generations later. Haagensen’s work combines a pattern designed by his grandmother in Australia with a pattern of his own. Kerge’s embroidery pieces depict abstract landscapes. In embroidery each stitch is proof that the past once existed. The neverending procession of stitches hold a collection of recorded moments that form the past.
Triin Kerge’s work has focused on the meaning of home and the longing for home. Recently, she has worked with the stories and memories of people who were deported to Siberia as children (1949 mass deportation) as well as researched her own family history. She studied documentary photography (BA) at the University of Wales, in Newport and contemporary art (MA) at the Estonian Academy of Arts.
Aksel Haagensen has mostly worked with installation and video. In his art he has researched the subject of refugees through the stories of his grandparents and thereby addressed questions of his own identity. He studied installation and sculpture (BA) and contemporary art (MA) at the Estonian Academy of Arts.
