Now every time I come home you greet me with a sneaker, glove or a hat in your mouth. Your tail going round like a propeller tells me how happy you are to see me. If I had a tail, it would do the same. Sometimes I can not believe how lucky we were to meet you.
Walks with you are the best. You are comfortable in any weather, especially in the snow. We don’t talk, we just walk. You are my personal therapist who helps me without using words. I am certain you know what I am thinking about – your eyes never lie.
You don’t like the busy streets and loud noises, you prefer spending time on a quiet meadow. There the play never ends – either with a tennis ball, a stick or a frisbee. I mean, don’t even get me started with the frisbees. You really go crazy for that circular piece of plastic. You could go on forever without stopping. Where do you get all that energy from?
I remember how you learned to swim. You jumped in the water and kept on going like a motor boat, not knowing how to turn back. You scared me for a second there, I thought you would never return. So I went in after you to get you back to the shore. I know you would love to catch all the ducks chilling in the river, but you have to remember – ducks are much faster in the water than dogs.
We make a very good team. Thank you for being the person you are. Love you!”
“DOG.PERSON” is an exhibition by Zahars Ze, a Latvian multi-disciplinary artist working with illustration and ceramics. During his artist residence at TYPA he reconnected with the techniques of screen printing and stencils – practices that he hadn’t been actively using for years. For his exhibition he also created a few ceramic pieces, since ceramics materials been used a lot is his s most common current practice. He is part of Krasta Keramika, which is a contemporary ceramics studio based in Riga, Latvia.
All the artworks are inspired by Zahars’ dog Elija and dedicated to all the nice dogs and dog persons on this planet. Shoutout to Enki, Kosmos, Tobi in Tartu and Shiva in Tallinn.
The biggest thanks to Arthur & Mari of Kuues Planeet for helping with the screen printing. Thanks to Kersti for the ceramic support, Stina for keeping it all together, and also to ajuokse and Stencibility people.
The exhibition is funded by Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme for Culture.
