Fragile Chains by Ulrika Paemurru

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Ulrika Paemurru

Dark heavy chains bring to mind imprisonment, damp shadowy catacombs, oppressive obligations, stagnation and limitations. At the same time a chain is also the symbol for security, unity and togetherness, an unbreakable spiritual bond. These impressions seem to be in opposition, but they have actually grown out of the same fear and desire: we wish to live in a safe world. We have a chain to keep the enemy locked away and a chain to keep everything dear close to us. Only, sometimes you might discover that you yourself have become the prisoner – when you are seen as dangerous by others or perhaps when you are chained by obligations and love somewhere where you feel trapped.
 
Visually akin to worn and twisted iron chains, the works feel heavy and unyielding. Immovable. Unchanging. But clay makes the connections fragile and the mess of links becomes easy to bear. By choosing an unexpected material the author wants to shake this absolute certainty that we simultaneously fear and wish for. To bring a little hope to those who are drowning in the ocean of their responsibilities or suffocating under heavy restrictions, but also care and caution to those who are currently feeling deceptively confident...
 
The works in the exhibition are a further development of the authors BA final project at the Estonian Academy of Arts, and special thanks are reserved for the supervisors of the original project: Nils Hint, Piret Hirv, Urmas Lüüs and Eve Margus-Villems.
 
Ulrika Paemurru (1989) is currently an MA student at the Estonian Academy of Arts, and has also studied at HEAR in Strasbourg and at the studio of Ruudt Peters in Amsterdam. Ulrika Paemurru has exhibited in group-shows in Estonia, Italy and online. "Fragile Chains" is her first solo show. In her artistic practice Ulrika Paemurru is interested in the small conflicts that surround safety, power and superstition, where through the element of fear emotionally very different ideas can come together.