Project TRACES Exhibition
Sandra Sirp & Helen Sirp
Tallinn Portrait Gallery
Estonia
2018
The project Traces is an experimental collaboration between two sisters, touching upon the same topic, whilst interpreting it in their own characteristic medium. The end result is a conceptual dialogue between paintings and photographs, allowing the works to develop new meanings within an immersive spatial installation – a curated journey through the translucent layers of time. Echoes of emotions, abstract flashes of memories, notions of moments past – morphed into a minimal visual language, allowing the viewers to enter the conversation and fill in the gaps with their own intimate interpretations.
The paintings are the result of the artist’s journey of self discovery, a continuous search, a subconscious stream of thoughts and cognitions. An important part of this journey is the process, which for Sandra is slow, monotonous, repetitive, meditative and disciplinary. It portrays a deep personal pursuit of order and balance, manifesting in the geometry of her signature minimal visual language. Her paintings are reflections of the artist’s ongoing work within the self, urging the viewers to take a moment of stillness and explore the resonances within their own inner landscapes.
The still-life images are creative collaborations between Helen and various photographers in London and Tallinn. Concepts inspired by past situations were pre planned as different themes, resulting in a curated visual vocabulary of symbolic objects, layers and lines, shapes and shadows, composed in controlled studio settings as well as relevant locations in Estonian nature. The end result is highly dependant on the synergy between the artist and the photographer whilst shooting – a spontaneous play on set, making it equally important what’s left outside the frame than what we see portrayed in it. Photography – as a medium to record a moment of time – adds another layer to the personal experiences and moments interpreted by the artist.
Photography: Studio Prokopiou, Holger Kilumets, Iris Kivisalu, Sam Hofman
Soundscape: Mart Männik
Exhibition photography: Tõnu Tunnel