Trans-Reflection
2019
Installation
Skuja Braden (founded in 1999) is a bi-national same-sex collaborative duo based in Aizkraukle, Latvia. The youngest artist in the festival, this double-headed, four-armed creature sits up late at night imagining parallel worlds where bodies are made of porcelain, flames leap out of oceans and lips touch lips, delivering cool water from inside. Skuja Braden’s works contain a fierce strain of feminism, political commentary and pinches of Buddhism. These elements come together in faceless little beasts that relate to each other through spatial installations while always referencing the ageless traditions of ceramic and porcelain. Skuja Braden’s ceramic studio in Aizkraukle creates pieces that are shown all over the world, and they are currently preparing a solo exhibition for the Museum of Decorative Art and Design in Riga in 2020.
Liquid Buddha is a composition that combines the figure of the Buddha with that of the ancient Artemis of Ephesus, among other references. While Buddha represents a spiritualism of the East, it is also a highly popular philosophy in California and thus transcends some of the same borders as Skuja Braden’s bi-nationality. The Artemis of Ephesus is covered in drop-like forms – often mistaken for breasts, they are more likely to be representations of the testes of bulls or gourds, both of which were commonly considered symbols of fertility in ancient Asia Minor.
XOXO plays out a war of sexes. The earliest records of the game date back to ancient Egypt, where it was discovered etched onto roof tiles. The famous game of tic-tac-toe melds in the chosen Survival Kit 10.1 room with the pedagogical environment of the black boards left behind at the faculty. The game always gives an advantage to the first player. Although the second player may win, in the best-case scenario they will tie. If both players are experts, the result is always a tie. This mathematical formula is opposed by a glazy layer of ceramic genitalia.
skujabraden.com