Wishing on the wind

Mark Rothko Art Centre, Daugavpils, Latvia, 2022.

“Wishing on the Wind” is as part of the Mycelia artist collaboration for Mark Rothko Art Centre in Daugavpils, Latvia. The work is a story about communication and invites people to touch it and move the ceramic pieces along copper rods to create sounds. The structure is inspired by a Russian abacus but also looks like a three-dimensional musical score. It is constructed from metal and birch wood poles. The two hundred ceramic pieces along the rods take the shape of the inside of my hand and have an imprint of my lifeline, as a symbol for all women, our life stories and sharing them with each other. It is all set in front of a large photographic wall work of an urban forest in Munich. The sculpture was devised in the studio and shipped in parts to Daugavpils. When installed in the space the sculpture ended up being far more magical and archeological than I hoped. While making this work I was thinking about all the social and political changes that have occurred in my lifetime and how it’s women who are always behind the scenes schooling, feeding, healing and working to keep everything going.

Mycelia project is about communication and networking amongst women artists. It is also about creativity, growth, continuity and strengthening each artists voice. It developed between Latvian and German based female artists with the hope to evolve further cross-cultural collaborations between women artists. Each artist in the show worked in tandems - one from Latvia and one from Germany.

I worked with Sandra Strēle and together we create a collaborative artwork about storytelling which consists of my large scale wall work and interactive sculpture, and Strēle's painting installation. On first view, even though Sandra’s and my work is quite different, there are a lot of commonalities in the colour palette, geometry and forms, which create a dialogue between the works and allow our individual creative voices to shine through.

Project supporters: Goethe Institut Riga, i.f.a, Kulturreferat München.

Photos: Didzis Grodzs, Latvia