Breadcrumb
Kristina Õllek’s exhibition “Filter Feeders, Double Binds & Other Silicones”
25.09.2020
Kristina Õllek’s exhibition “Filter Feeders, Double Binds & Other Silicones” in Draakon gallery will be opened from Tuesday, 29th of September. The exhibition remains open until October 10.
By breathing in and out of the water,
being with others, livings and non-livings.
Sand, silica, silicon, and other silicones.
Blending in and becoming
Hydra.
Hydrate me,
with a soft squishy feeling.
And yet,
it’s no spa, but urgency.
Kristina Õllek
Kristina Õllek
“Filter Feeders, Double Binds & Other Silicones” is an installative exhibition based on Kristina Õllek’s research and personal observations of anthropocentric influences on marine ecology, focusing on the North Sea coastal area and its filter feeders – blue mussels, oysters and the expanding jellyfish population. In the past 2 years, Õllek was living in The Hague, on the coast of the North Sea, and became interested in filter feeder organisms, such as mussels and oysters. They are called filter feeders because they purify water and act as filters for polluted water; hence, they are considered ecosystem engineers. On the Dutch coastline there are many oyster and blue mussel farms (aquaculture), most of these are based in Zeeland, an area that is largely below sea level and one of the most human-engineered regions in the Netherlands. In 1953 the most devastating flooding in the Dutch history took place there, and the Deltaworks Neeljte Jans dike was built after this, which changed some of its landscape into a dystopic and alienated surface. With the on-going work she’s thinking with the North Sea, and its speculative assumptions and changes in marine ecology.
Kristina Õllek (b. 1989) is a visual artist based in Tallinn, Estonia. She works with photography, video and installation, focusing on representational processes, geological and ecological matter, and the human-made environment. In her practice she frequently uses situations when fact and fiction, synthetic and natural, copy and original intertwine with each other becoming a hybrid object/matter to obtain new and reconsidered meaning. Within her recent projects she’s been interested in the notion of new technologies and geophysics, the connectivity of the spatial and ecological circumstances, as well the components and resources that enable such technologies to create today’s environment. Her work is often site-sensitive and analyses the location and the format of exhibition-making, questioning the display and the politics of installation in the perspective of a historical museum to an online space.
Õllek has obtained a MA and BA degree from the Estonian Academy of Arts (Fine Arts, Photography), has studied at Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam (2016) and Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee (2012). From 2013 to 2018, Õllek was actively engaged with co-running the nomadic artist-run space Rundum. She has been twice the laureate of the Estonian Academy of Arts – Young Artist Prize 2013 (BA) and 2016 (MA).
In 2019 Kristina Õllek received the Artproof production grant for her project Filter Feeders, Double Binds & Other Silicones at Foto Tallinn Art Fair. The photography-based works presented in this exhibition are sponsored by Artproof 5000€ production grant, with the support of TruLife Acrylic by Tru Vu Inc.
Artist thanks: Kert Viiart, perekond Õllek, Angeliki Tzortzakaki, Taavi Rekkaro, Siim Vahur, Niekolaas Johannes Lekkerkerk, Kulla Laas, Rundum, Het Wilde Weten, 1646, Billytown.
Exhibition is supported by: Artproof, Estonian Cultural Endowment, L-Disain OÜ (Lauri Lenk)
Exhibitions in Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko Ltd.
Additional information:
Draakon Gallery
Tel: +372 56 451 591
Tel: +372 56 451 591
+372 52 85 324
+372 6 276 777
E-mail: galerii@eaa.ee
Pikk 18, 10133 Tallinn
+372 6 276 777
E-mail: galerii@eaa.ee
Pikk 18, 10133 Tallinn
Mon–Fri 11.00–18.00
Sat 11.00–17.00
