A Rose
Installation, 2012
The true essence and value of things resides in us. But what are we? This is a question to which everyone has to find an answer. Knowing yourself, recognising your own identity and developing your own personality is the basis of understanding true values, one precondition of the survival and development of humankind.
The idea for the installation “A Rose” (320 x 309 cm), created from artificial roses, comes from the popular poem by Gertrude Stein which asserts “Rose is a rose is a...”, invoking a poetic and emotional association between things. The message – things are what they are:
A
ROSE IS A
ROSE IS A
ROSE IS A
ROSE
At the same time, the flower symbolises the value of nature – fragile and true, “A rose is a rose”.
The work “A Rose” is similar to the artist’s previous work “Loves me, loves me not” (2012) that was displayed as part of the project “TO BE OR NOT” at Daile Theatre Art Space on Brīvības Street 75. The idea of the work was derived from the main protagonist’s monologue of William Shakespeare’s tragedy “Hamlet”:
...The pangs of despised love...
“The idyllic scene of a daisy field, created by the artist, makes one yield to romance with a disarming smile. Meanwhile, the lovely flowers, which petals we pluck one by one in order to anxiously guess “loves me / loves me not” and which culturally and historically associate with an innocent indulgence of faith, hope and love, turn out to be given as an assignment to warn. The delicate, dear flowers as if by accident are arranged in a ruthless, Hamlet-like message – a signal: “Illusion”” (commentary by art historian Aiga Dzalbe). (I.B.)
Downshifting? For me, any of the strategies of “slowing down” (reducing workload, expenses or consumption, moving out of the city, “opting out of the game”, etc.) are not urgent, as I have always tried to maintain the balance between spiritual and material worlds. I do like comfort and beautiful things but cannot stand ostentation and decorativeness – a form without content; I dislike hoarding things which you don’t really need. I like work that gives satisfaction and a chance to know more and perfect myself. I think problems arise from the fact that many people don’t even try to understand what they really need and what is excessive. The world develops and changes rapidly, and it is important to get a picture of yourself in this context, so as not to fall into one extreme or another. This is a way to recognize the true values of life.
Artist's Bio:
Inga Brūvere is a painter as curator. She graduated from the Janis Rozentals Riga Art High school and the Department of Painting of the Art Academy of Latvia. In the 1990s Brūvere’s painting had a characteristically minimalistic, elastic form, which was replaced by an analytical and conceptual approach in the 2000s. By varying the basic elements of painting such as colour, relationships within the colour spectrum, line and space, which align in new combinations, Inga Brūvere creates abstract, ornamental compositions, which can simultaneously be “read” as a conceptual message. Visual information creates an interplay or a confrontation with verbal or conceptual meaning, for example, a kaleidoscope, game cubes or a word that turns into a certain image is like an illustration of the reality metaphor: forms created by geometric constructions are simultaneously elusive illusions or models, which at the very next moment may fall apart and arrange themselves in new combinations. (I.A.)