Artist Statement

I create drawing installations of domestic interiors filled with minute details, autobiographical stories and cultural references. Using paint markers and ink on painted wooden surfaces, everything comes down to the line — tracing edges, outlining shapes, charting borders between shadow and light and blurring boundaries between two and three dimensions. My approach is informed by my earlier video projection work, flattening and transforming everyday objects; this creates an interplay between trompe l’oeil and reality that mirrors thecognitive dissonance I have carried since childhood.

Growing up in Soviet-occupied Estonia, my sense of the world was shaped by scarcity and political instability. That reality is almost unimaginable compared to Estonia today, and downright inconceivable to fellow Australians. Post Iron Curtain collapse, I navigated life with a Russian name in a place harbouring strong anti-Russian sentiments before moving ever further across the globe. My work reflects this incongruity: perpetually remaining at the intersection of cultures, languages and customs.

Drawing is my way of carving out pockets of familiarity, of tracing my place in the world. I ampassionate about expanding drawing beyond its conventionally two-dimensional format. My work-in-progress explores hybrid forms between two-dimensional wall art and sculptural elements or furniture pieces. I also aim to reintroduce a temporal dimension through light and projection.

Ultimately, my practice is a negotiation between past and present, perception and reality. It is an attempt to reconcile the world I come from with the one I inhabit now, to create spaces where both can coexist between the lines.