"Illogical conclusions from accurate assumptions" (2023)
Mixed media, sculpture, installation
Strolling through the Vidzeme market in Riga while it was still in operation, the artist noticed that off-season fruits and vegetables often come from countries like Poland, Greece, Spain, and Morocco. Cherries, nectarines, bananas, pears, and apples can be seen as exotic visitors to Latvia, arranged side by side on the counter. Inspired by the market’s aesthetics and the Soviet tendency to name buildings after fruits and vegetables as part of a wider architectural and ideological movement to create a sense of abundance and prosperity within a socialist system, the artist came to the idea of creating various models of absurd and utopian architecture, forming combinations of fruits, eggs, and vegetables in different modular structures. Through playfulness and humor, the artist imagines how those new structures take part in a transnational congress of the future.
Having grown up in Latvia in the period of post-Soviet transition, Evita Vasiljeva often draws on visual imagery of modular architecture and rough suburban landscapes. She creates objects, devices and interactive installations by appropriating materials usually used for construction, such as concrete, armature, and various electrical appliances. By manipulating and repurposing the materials, Evita Vasiljeva invents her own aesthetic and provokes relational dynamics between spaces, architecture, and spectators’ bodies. There is a certain quality in her works that is more reminiscent of the model than of sculpture, in that they seem to reach for a purpose beyond aesthetic concern, whether as a means of experiment or trial or because they might be strange prototypes laid aside for future thought. While her works tackle the issues of anxiety and control, they remain open to multiple interpretations by exploring the variety of ways of coexisting within the present moment.
/ Photo credit: Kristīne Madjare / Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art