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Overlay I

Overlay I

Tufted rugs, plywood, varnish
95 × 80 × 90 cm
Variable dimensions
2021
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Introduction

Work from a group exhibition ”The Bambi Project“ .

”Why are we safe here?“ he asked. ”Because all the bushes shield us,“ his mother answered, ”and the twigs snap on the shrubs and the dry twigs crackle and give us warning. And last year’s dead leaves lie on the ground and rustle to warn us, and the jays and the magpies keep watch so we can tell from a distance if anybody is coming.“ (Salten, p. 33–34)

Reading Salten’s Bambi, Laura Põld was especially moved by the parts describing the life cycle and purpose of the forest leaves. As they fall from the trees, leaves become a soft carpet that embraces the forest animals and warns them with their rustle of any approaching danger. Salten’s leaves stand for the inevitability of death and birth that intercon-nects all the creatures in the story.

Põld has created a series of rugs with abstract shapes resembling both animal skins as well as dried leaves. The patterns of the carpets are layered and striped, turning and returning to the same place, recalling the layers of matter accumulating on the surface of the earth, a sign of the passing of time and the recurrence of the seasons. Like leaves fallen from a tree, elements from this installation are scattered here and there in the gallery, meeting other artists’ works. Some of the rugs are attached to a plywood board and thus become a supporting or covering element in their own right. Some of the small rugs, however, are soft and flexible, allowing visitors to sit on them and move them around the space.

installation, textile

About the artist

Laura Põld’s practice combines interdisciplinary and traditional craft skills with sculpture-based mediums. Through these lenses, she examines posthuman and more-than-human ways of being, caring, community building, and sheltering. She creates large-scale assemblages, constructions and installations from these sources, which playfully disrupt and subvert the typical understanding of art venues.

Laura Põld (b.1984 in Tallinn, Estonia) is an Estonian artist living in Tallinn and Vienna. Her formal education includes the study of ceramics at the Estonian Academy of Arts (BA), painting at the University of Tartu (MA) and sculptural conceptions and ceramics at the University of Art and Design, Linz (MA). She is a Visiting Associate Professor of installation and sculpture at the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA), Tallinn, Estonia.

Her recent solo and duo exhibitions include: Translating and Co-labouring, (AV17) Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania (2023); Common Threads, Polar Bear and Elephant with Andres Tolts, Kogo Gallery, Tartu, Estonia (2022); Doing What They Do Best, Kunstraum Memphis, Linz, Austria (2021). Recent group exhibitions include: Down the Rabbit Hole, MO museum, Vilnius, Lithuania (2024), Emotional Landscapes, Arka Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania (2023); shelter – sanctuary, The Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM), Tallinn, Estonia (2023); Art in the Age of the Anthropocene, Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia (2023); (INTIMITÄT) Feelings are Facts, Kunstverein Eisenstadt, Austria (2023). Recent art fairs include: duo presentation with Anna Mari Liivrand at Esther Art Fair with Kogo Gallery, New York City, US (2024), Kassia I and Kassia II, solo presentation at Basel Social Club with Kogo Gallery, Basel, Swizerland (2024); Ways of Being, solo presentation at viennacontenporay 2023, Zone1 section with Kogo Gallery, Vienna, Austria (2023); Fibers in the Cave, solo presentation at Art Brussels with Kogo Gallery, Belgium (2023), Emotional Landscapes, duo presentation with Kristi Kongi at Liste Art Fair Basel with Kogo Gallery, Switzerland (2022).

Põld has been awarded a number of prizes and scholarships such as the Köler Prize Grand Prix (2016), the Grand Prize of The Cultural Endowment of Estonia (2018), the ISCP New York studio grant (2019) and the Claus Michaletz Preis (2021). Laura Põld is one of the recipients of the Estonian artist’s salary during 2023–2025.
Her works are in collections of Art Museum Bayreuth and European Central Bank Art Collection, Germany; Gmundner Keramik Collection, Austria; Art Museum of Estonia and Tartu Art Museum, Estonia; Zuzāns Collection, VV Foundation and Mark Rothko Centre, Latvia.

More works by this artist

Installation (steel, tufted rugs, plywood, varnish, paint), 131 × 132 × 132 cm, 2022
Installation (steel, tufted rugs, plywood, varnish, paint), 182 × 229 × 4 cm, 2022
Installation (steel, tufted rugs, plywood, varnish, paint), 115 × 142 × 4 cm, 2022
Tufted rug, rope, felt, 135 × 180 cm, 2022
Tufted rugs, rope, 38 × 68 × 37 cm, 2021
Tufted rugs, plywood, varnish, 205 × 60 × 3 cm, 2021
Tufted rugs, plywood, varnish, 95 × 80 × 90 cm, 2021
Low fire ceramics, 2018
Low fire ceramics, 2018
Cotton, wool, hand-tufted, 190 × 130 cm, 2022
Hand-tufted rug with fringes, 150 × 90 cm, 2022
Steel, wool, 80 × 60 cm, 2022
Steel, 80 × 60 cm, 2022
Tufted wool, burlap, rope , 280 × 480 cm, 2022–2023
Wool, acrylic, burlap, felt, 110 × 105 × 2 cm, 2023
Wool, acrylic, burlap, felt, 145 × 192 × 2 cm, 2023
Tufted rug, 400 × 90 cm, 2021
Ceramics, 34 × 24 × 2.5 cm, 2020
Sold
Ceramics, 38 × 26,5 × 2.5 cm, 2020
Ceramics, 35 × 23 × 2.5 cm, 2020
Ceramics, 30 × 40 × 2.5 cm, 2020
Ceramics, 31.3 × 21 × 2.5 cm, 2020
Ceramics, 32 × 22 × 2.5 cm, 2020
Sold
Ceramics, 30.2 × 20 × 2.5 cm, 2019
Ceramics, 31 × 22 × 2.5 cm, 2020
Sold
Burlap, tufted wool and acrylic, 70 × 80 cm, 2022
Burlap, tufted wool and acrylic, 105 × 70 cm, 2022
Ceramics, 60 × 30 × 20 cm, 2018
Earthenware ceramics, 24 × 26 × 5 cm, 2018–2019
Earthenware ceramics, 26 × 16 × 5 cm, 2018–2019
Earthenware ceramics, 41 × 30 × 5 cm, 2018–2019
Ceramics, 24 × 35 × 12 cm, 2018–2019
Ceramics, 21 × 33 × 4 cm, 2018–2019
Ceramics, 38 × 31 × 4 cm, 2018–2019
Ceramics, 23 × 33 × 8 cm, 2018–2019
Porcelain, 21 × 19 × 4.5 cm, 2018–2019
Ceramics, 90 × 60 × 65 cm, 2019
Porcelain, 15.5 × 12 × 2 cm, 2018–2019
Ceramics, 40 × 40 × 35 cm, 2019
Sold
Ceramics, 25 × 34 × 30 cm, 2019
Ceramics, 90 × 32 × 30 cm, 2019
Ceramics, 22 × 38 × 33 cm, 2019
Ceramics, porcelain, 50 × 47 × 53 cm, 2019

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