Margot Kask: / PERSONAL EXHIBITION: COVERS at Hobusepea Gallery

October 21 - 31, 2011

Hobusepea 2, Tallinn

According to the artist, current exhibition studies the semantic territories included in the concepts of cover and refuge, considering both the dimensions of bodies and buildings. While approaching the subject in a personal, phenomenological and poetic way, Margot Kask is focusing on the primary functions of covers – that is to cover, conceal and hold something, whether aiming at the act of separation or connection. The artist is analyzing the archetypical surroundings – the corpus (Latin for „body“) - connecting the body, clothing and buildings, as well as the allusions and references to one's personal and social space.

Kask says that she has been inspired by certain visual images: for instance the Native American teepee as a female womb; relation of a female body and womb to the hidden side of the cyrcle of life and death (compared to the dark side of the moon); the spectacular, irrational yearning referring to Guy Debord or the so-called wow-architecture arising erotic feelings; semantic connections to the wedding veil; the image of mater omnia (Latin for „the mother of all“) that has been used in Christian cultural space, expressed by the motherly female figure holding the skirts of her garment above the congregation; Demeter (for „immensity“) the goddess of harvest and the fertility of the earth in Greek mythology; Giorgio Agamben's description of the aspect of homo sacer, ascribed to the bodies of kings and other representatives; Buddhist refuge prayer; the Estonian word „kotus“ that has a variery of meanings, including „hearth“ and „roof“.

Besides Giorgio Agamben and Guy Debord as mentioned above the artist has also been inspired by ideas expressed by Gaston Bachelard, Arnold Berleant, Mircea Eliade, Tim Ingold, Doris Kareva, Pauli Tapani Karjalainen, Henri Lefebvre, Kaia Lehari, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Yrjö Sepänmaa.

Exhibition will be open until October 31, 2011.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Special thanks to: Iivi Kesa, Kaija Kesa, Kadri Kangilaski, Marilyn Piirsalu.

Elin Kard
Hobusepea Gallery
http://www.eaa.ee/hobusepea

A selection of works exhibited: