Anna Mari Liivrand

At Liste Art Fair Basel 2023, Kogo Gallery will present Estonian artist Anna Mari Liivrand with her solo stand Whispers of Unfurling Tears. Using poetic language and her own system of symbols, Liivrand explores evanescence and melancholy in today’s society. As a rather decadent person, she is interested in different emotional experiences, undercurrents in the space like the breeze or sweet smells, impermanence, traces of time and overlaps of cultural history. Recently, Liivrand has been occupied with gloomy feelings of anxiety. As a result, she has created new works that resemble metal cut altarpieces combined with delicate drawings, ornaments and ready-made objects. Keeping the aesthetic and form she recently found, Liivrand’s interest has shifted towards the movement of change, the slow but unstoppable process of rebirth.

As the symbol of rebirth, the artist has chosen a tadpole. It forms from a frog’s egg but has yet to develop into a frog – an amphibian that can partly live in the water and partly on the ground. In Western history, it has been perceived as a mysterious creature, a symbol of uncertainty. Change means instability and doubt as rebirth goes hand in hand with entropy turning old lives and worlds into ruins for the new life to start. Relying on aesthetics, iconography, decor and storytelling elements forming various visual histories and craft practices, Liivrand will exhibit a group of installative sculptures inlaid with drawings, stained glass and organic matter. Together they will form a surrealistic landscape depicting the birth of a new, unknown life form among the ruins of the old.