Graphic Code Field Research in Latvia's Urban Environment, Using a Historical Perspective, Compositional Analysis and Gender Studies. Facts and Possible Solutions for Improving the Situation.
Research, 2013
Mankind, in all eras has tried to promote fertility and receive God’s mercy with the assistance of graphic and spatial signs (totems). In the matriarchal period, it was a woman with large breasts and wide hips suited to the making of children, and during the patriarchal period – phallic symbols, which portrayed an erect penis and helped in both promoting fertility among people, as well as increasing the harvest and increasing herds. A similar process is happening nowadays: grafitti or grafitti images are being created in the urban environment – signs which provide evidence of the dominating symbols of power in people’s minds. Preliminary research provides evidence that in Latvia there is a very powerfully explicit balance in the portrayals of phallic images over the female fertility symbol (the breasts or the vagina), which are hard to find and provide evidence of the dominating patriarchal state of mind in today’s Latvia. The research was done in three parts – the field research was done first, then the collation of the results and their publication. There will be a lecture held (September 7) as part of Survival Kit 5, in which the existing situation will be analyzed and solutions provided for its improvement .
(I.P.)
Artist's Bio:
Has taken part in art projects since 1998. Gained a Masters degree from the Latvian Academy of Art Department of Visual Communication, as well as the Estonian Academy of Arts Animation Department. To realize her ideas she uses a variety of media and art forms – comics, animation, video, installations and performances. She researches society’s internal conformity and the role of the individual in this, and is interested in people and documentary stories.