Call & Response [2021]
reclaimed wool on latch hook canvas, 70x55cmFinalist, 2021 Kudos Emerging Artist + Designer Award
Exhibited at BONFIRE, Flow Studios, curated by Levent Kaya
'Call and Response' reminisces on corrupted messages, 11am pressers, crop circles and bureaucratic futurity.
Evocative of fields of wheat and early computing punched cards, the Ghiordes knotting used depicts a three-minute interstellar radio message sent in 1974 from the now-decommissioned Arecibo Observatory and the Arecibo answer 'hoax' received in 2001 near Chilbolton radio telescope in the UK. Expected to arrive in the globular star cluster M13 in the year 26,974 CE, thanks to its low image resolution, the message becomes practically illegible and indecipherable to extra-terrestrials attaching any meaning to it. Traditional Scandinavian rya/rüiu/ryijy short pile knotting, once used to make knotted pile bedcovers for mariners, is utilised to consider what humanity looks like to a galaxy 22,180 light years away.
Beyond the messages unashamedly naïve optimism and form over function, the message becomes a call to action for ourselves, asking us what comfort can we find knowing we are alone when the universe constantly leaves our messages on read. How do these stories and hopes of optimism and futurity collectivise and unify humans within an expansive unending void...but I suppose more importantly, do we even care if anyone listens?
‘Call and Response’ began one of those “lockdown projects” which initially began when the Tokyo 2021 Olympics started and continued sporadically across several months, backgrounded by many shows including three seasons of OITNB, some of my favourite album releases in a long time and multiple political flash points. It took inspiration from an untitled rüiu seinavaip [wall carpet aka tapestry] purchased by my Vanamamma in 1971 by local weaver Marta Kond. A familiar sight in many Estonian and Eastern European homes, wall carpets are extremely evocative of hygge spaces and retro aesthetics.
Stuck at home, lockdown inspired me to finally use the wool gifted to me by Maie Barrow and the latch hook canvas donated to me by Mai Buchert. I have long been a fan of rug making and tapestry and being exposed to the litany of rug tufting videos across TikTok and YouTube during lockdown inspired me to finally take a shot at my own latch hook shag/rüiu/ryijy/rya/taatit rug.
This slow, methodical process of making the rüiu provided a sense of measured rhythm during a time when much was uncertain and things kept moving quickly. Like the historical rüiu was once used as a bedspread for mariners at sea, these long banner-like rugs offered comfort and steadiness in a surreal moment.