Evita Vasiļjeva

Evita Vasiļjeva is one of the most talented Latvian contemporary sculptors, who creates sculptures from various materials. Robust and brutal forms interact with fragile, almost ethereal textures: concrete blocks against refined and sharp reinforcement bars, thick rubber against dissolving powder, and all the elements of the outer world against the inner narrative. The artist explains that her works seek to “make more emotionally human that which we call contemporary art, which has become encrusted with cold perfectionism, pushing aside the artist as a psychological being.”

 The work “Hormones” comprises sound-activated light sculptures which change colour in response to the noise produced by people nearby. The more visitors gather in the space of the work and the louder they behave, the more “nervous” the lights become. In total silence, the work remains in a static condition. While the semantics of such robust, indifferent concrete forms encompass powerful stories about industrialisation and utopian modernist projects, the sculptural work itself does not appear so abstractly conceptual, because suddenly it is transformed into a being with its own nervous system and fluctuating hormonal level.

Hormones. 2017.