1. Johanna Mudist “Flora and Fauna”

Johanna Mudist “Flora and Fauna”

24.08.2020

On Thursday, 27 August at 5 p.m. Johanna Mudist will open her solo exhibition “Flora and Fauna” in the small gallery of the Tartu Art House.
 
With these drawings, Johanna Mudist continues her little man’s series, where the play between the small format of her piece and the proportions of the human-character(s) depicted, looked at the myth of the little man known from the classics of literature. When used in literature, “little man” was little mostly in terms of its function (e.g. some clerk as a cog in the machine), Mudist, however, is observing the system as a whole. This time, the play with proportions has moved on from people also to flora and fauna.
 
Having drawn the distinction, dividing the world into living beings, plants and animals, the artist abandons it almost at once and demonstrates the metamorphic nature of all matter. All conceivable proportions are uncertain and sequences are arbitrary. In the small black and white, postcard-like drawings, the beings are constantly in flow and transition, entering or exiting each other. It is the kind of mess which has not been seen since the creation of the world.
 
Mudist adds: “Any hint of mythology allows us to intuit a bigger narrative, a folk story, from which these small drops were distilled. Despite their small size, the pictures have a keyhole-like perspective: peeking into them, a much bigger space can be sensed inside. This space, however, has not been clearly visualised. Thus, taking into account their life-experience, dreams and fears, everyone can fill it with suitable furniture.”
 
Johanna Mudist (b 1991) is an artist living and working in Tallinn. She graduated from the Painting Department of Pallas University of Applied Sciences (BA) in 2014 and the Estonian Academy of Arts (MA) in 2017, complementing her studies in Finland and Poland. Mudist has been a member of the Estonian Painters’ Association since 2017 and the member of the Estonian Artists’ Association since 2019. Her last solo exhibition in Tartu was the 2019 „Time Traveller” in Noorus Gallery.
 
The exhibition will remain open until 20 September.
 
Additional information:
Tanel Asmer
Tartu Art House producer
Tel: +372 5562 1192
 
Tartu Art House
Vanemuise 26, 51014 Tartu
Wed–Mon 12.00–18.00
www.kunstimaja.ee
www.facebook.com/kunstimaja
Johanna Mudist “Flora and Fauna”
Back to top