Urmas Lüüs “Mortal Kombat 2: afterglow”

Urmas Lüüs: “When my exhibition Mortal Kombat: LOVE (HOP gallery, 2016) dealt with the more tempestuous aspects of the emotional experience of ending a relationship, then Mortal Kombat 2: afterglow is a reflection on those ripples that still occasionally disturb the calmed surface after years gone by. Arguably, the sound wave from the Big Bang is still reverberating somewhere in the universe.
Through my creative practice I seek answers to various questions. Does an object have an inherent ability to be performative? How do people experience one and the same artwork in different and contradictory settings (such as the white cube and the black box) and how do these contrasting settings affect reception of the piece with similar logic? How to design an exhibition space that focuses on the sole thing that is not exhibited? What are the possibilities and potentials of the traditional material-oriented skills in the field of conceptual art? Why have the themes of love, faith and the common ground that we share with 7.7 billion people become a greater taboo than sexuality, religion and politics? How to forget common knowledge to rethink the quotidian? How to convey the human condition by rendering everyday objects celibate and placing them in a poetic frame of reference? How can a physical object speak to us about the nonmaterial more effectively than words?”

Urmas Lüüs is an Estonian artist who combines installation, performance, craft, sound art, video, tools of visual theatre, text, photography and sculpture. His main topics of interest include object-space relations and the performative quality of an object. He likes to explore the grey areas between the black box and the white cube. Urmas Lüüs has acquired BA and MA degrees at the Estonian Academy of Arts in the field of blacksmithing and complemented the course Iron and Steel: Design in Public Space at the University of Gothenburg HDK Steneby College. He has worked in the studio of Ruudt Peters and currently works in his studio in Hobusepea Street in Tallinn. Since 2015 he is a lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts in the field of jewellery and blacksmithing. He has been a guest lecturer in the Chinese Academy of Arts, Hiko Mizuno College of Jewellery in Japan and University of Silpakorn in Thailand. His works have been exhibited in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, China, Italy, Israel, Ireland and Australia. He has published theoretical articles in Sirp, KUNST.EE, Müürileht, ERR Kultuuriportaal and Art Jewelry Forum (USA).