CAVITY, 2021

By Madara Kvēpa ^{Emerging artist}

90 x 100 cm

styrofoam, acryllic

This work was exhibited at my solo-exhibition “Whole” during Art Festival Cesis, Latvia, summer of 2021. The inspiration for this series was born in the dark shadow cast on to us by the global pandemic. Since the moment it began, I noticed that our lives had changed based on a huge emphasis on physical health, consequentially leaving behind concerns about our mental health. Since no one could help me with the increasing hopelessness of all the canceled plans and exhibitions of the pandemic, I decided to take my mental health matters into my own hands. I engaged in several ancient healing rituals, which later came to be the source of inspiration for a series of artworks. This work is a symbolic, synthetic souvenir that I made in memory of the ancient healing rituals that I performed in the forest. Polyurethane as a material can be seen as a local (nordic) synthetic “stone”, because in nordic countries it is widely used for insulation, in contrast to western countries were it is used only for packaging products. By carving out nature-inspired forms out of a synthetic material such as this, I bring the forest with me to the urban environment where I work and live. Only upcycled polyurethane used in the making of this work.

Come to see it