Outset Estonia supports Merike Estna’s performative presence an egg, a larva, a nymph at the Estonian Chapter of the 13th Baltic Triennial in Tallinn. For the Baltic Triennial exhibition Give Up the Ghost at Tallinn Art Hall, the artist has created a colourful installation, which serves as a background for the performance. The installation consists of 4000 hand-painted and glazed tiles laid across the floor, depicting ticks, flies and snakes, as well as a large-scale painting. The center of the installation is the performative presence by a serene male nude (performer Andrius Mulokas). As a painter, Estna’s colour palette consists mainly of light pale pastels, which she smears to create swirly patterns. Estna has moved from treating canvases in such manner to cover clothes, objects and entire spaces with cotton-wool colours, gradually expanding her research into colour and the act of painting, the possibilities of experiencing and looking at painting in an expanded field.
MERIKE ESTNA (b. 1980) lives and works in Tallinn, Estonia. She graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2005 and Goldsmiths College, University of London, in 2009. Her work has been presented in several solo and group exhibitions around Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States and Latin America. In 2014, she was awarded the Konrad Mäe prize and she has been teaching at the Estonian Art Academy since 2014 and at Tartu Art School since 2016. In her artistic practice, Estna seeks for the conceptual integration of painting and daily life.
Merike Estna’s installation is on view at Tallinn Art Hall from June 30 to September 2, 2018, with performative presence on the opening night on June 29, 2018.
