Artist: Anna Mari Liivrand
Title: The Woo of Coiling Paths
Curator: Elīna Drāke
Venue: Kogo Gallery, Tartu
Photos: Roman-Sten Tõnissoo
A recent recipient of the Köler Prize, Anna Mari Liivrand works across drawing, sculpture and installation. In her latest body of work, Liivrand extends her exploration of ornamental metalwork, botanical motifs and stained-glass mosaics, incorporating subtle urban gestures inspired by graffiti into her intricate compositions.
Each installation in the exhibition unfolds as a distinct chapter within a broader narrative where every fragment follows its own trajectory while contributing to Liivrand’s evolving visual vocabulary of coiling forms, material memory and transformation.
Combining vintage stained glass, industrial remnants and antique ornamentation, the artist carefully pieces together disparate fragments, coaxing them into forms of striking delicacy. The glass elements embrace fragility: their imperfections preserve traces of the past and become vessels of memory, echoing the philosophy of kintsugi. Whether through floral etchings rendered with the precision of botanical illustration or airy traces of spray paint evoking fragments of urban inscriptions, each structure reveals a beauty shaped by its layered history.
The metal structures recall Gothic ornaments and the protective forms of sacred and memorial architecture, appearing at once monumental and delicate, their linear compositions unfolding like drawings in space. They invite the viewer’s eye to move between overlapping forms, where shifting perspectives reveal new relationships between elements that twist, coil, fork and evolve into ever-changing configurations.
As in Liivrand’s earlier works, the human presence is felt only through what has been left behind. Found objects – coins, keys, paper notes and earrings – emerge as intimate relics, carrying the quiet histories of their former owners and the traces of time they have accumulated. Through collecting what has been discarded and patiently assembling it into intricate structures, Liivrand transforms acts of repair into poetic gestures of care.
Reflecting the complexity of our relationships with memory, nature and the past, Liivrand’s works explore imagined spaces where lightness and permanence exist in tension. The forms of the structures preserve traces of nature’s fleeting presence and create a space where memory, architecture and landscape intertwine. Rather than prescribing a single narrative, each sculpture remains open to interpretation, allowing different relationships between materials, forms and histories to emerge.