The exhibition ‘The Tower’ by Anna Mari Liivrand is on view at the Tartu Art House Monumental Gallery until November 10th.
The exhibition is inspired by the artist’s interest in decorative elements and symbolic and emotional spaces. In the gallery, we encounter a situation in which the strength and durability of both the internal and external sides of towers are called into question, referring to towers’ tendency to decay over time.
Anna Mari Liivrand’s work in recent years has been characterised by an interest in everyday rituals, ornamentation and decoration. The artist often looks at them from the perspective of self-creation, but she also treats them as reference points in a changing world full of uncertainty and anxiety. As a result, her works often include spaces that carry emotional states of a ritual nature.
In the exhibition “Tower”, Liivrand takes a closer look at the tower as an object and motif, and through the tower’s strength and simultaneous fragility, reflects on the world around us, which, like towers, seems both safe and threatening.
“I am interested in the tower as a structure that stands firmly and enthrones itself above its surroundings. It is like an anchor, signalling stability and a sense of security, reflected in the masts and antennas that fill the landscape, as well as in church steeples. Yet despite their elevated positions, towers seem unexpectedly fragile, distant and inaccessible in their loneliness and disconnectedness,” the artist explains.
Anna Mari Liivrand (b 1993) graduated from the sculpture and installation department (BA, 2016) and contemporary art department (MA, 2022) of the Estonian Academy of Arts and has also studied fine arts at the Iceland University of Arts. In 2014, Liivrand received the Young Sculptor Prize. In addition to solo exhibitions, she has participated in numerous group shows, including the 7th Artishok Biennale. She was the recipient of the Eduard Wiiralt prize in 2020. She received the Estonian Cultural Endowment’s annual award (2021).
Photography: Anna Mari Liivrand & Kaimar Tauri Tamm
Instagram: @annamari.liivrand @kunstimaja @appropriatekaimar
