Elin Kard

Untitled

2004

The earliest work at the exhibition is Elin Kard’s self-portrait Untitled from 2004, which was first displayed at her solo exhibition Samādhi at Tallinn City Gallery. Elin, who graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts as a leather designer, has both directly and indirectly treated human skin as a symbol of sensitivity in various media: “… skin is what our soul uses to protect us from the external around us – the border where the subject meets their surrounding reality,” she wrote already in the text accompanying her graduation project. The portrait of a woman displayed at this exhibition is also thoroughly worked through, as if tested on one’s own skin. We can sense the woman’s deep and permeating gaze behind her eyelids, focused on her own black and white solitude. Calm and sad, she looks at the world with her eyes closed.

Untitled