Photos:  Katri Lumi

In the context of this exhibition, the Old Persian word pairidaeza (enclosed garden) suggests an ideal, ambivalent world, which isn’t necessarily imagined as otherworldly. The past contains cultural memes which were oriented not towards self-actualisation, but towards preserving balance on Earth. These memes can be revived today, if only our state of mind and actions allow it.

The paintings juxtapose vanishing tribal imagery with figures of contemporary urban dwellers, thus seeking our essential roots within hidden patterns. All life and universe are full of examples of structural similarity, repeated on both the smallest and the largest scale.

Shamanistic tribal cultures appear to have had an intuitive grasp of the connection between humans and nature. They expressed it through identifying with animals, or through symbolic body ornamentation. These paintings are a poetic nod to vanishing cultures and to the sense of oneness with, as opposed to conquest of, our environment.

As one of today’s leading physicists, Lawrence Krauss, has put it: “You are all stardust”

Sound composition: Kaido Kirikmäe.

https://kultuur.err.ee/645214/kunstnik-leho-rubis-vahendab-kaugeid-kultuure