Solo exhibition ‘T-SG’ at gallery ‘OKNA’ in Porto, Portugal. 2022. Selected photos.

Despite the diversity of climatic conditions and cultural differences of both places, the angle of view is the same, centred on the artist’s role as ‘the stranger’, vagabonding around these rural environments for the first time, moving away from the urban fuss to a completely different time flow, and trying to integrate into a new community.

The process resembles camouflaging – the artist is aware of her external identity, displacement and foreign being therefore she attempts to merge with the surrounding landscape both metaphorically and physically to reach a state of belonging and unity. Meanwhile the artist also engages with the locals by participating in their daily rural activities such as beekeeping, plant gathering, fruit picking. The temporary loss of the previous identity and integration into a new environment can be looked at as a certain rite of passage to which fire is often used as a tool to go through the liminal state and to become initiated. A very bodily and therefore receptive experience can be achieved through the process of combustion (H2O + CO2) which is the core practice of the artist.

This exhibition serves both as a compilation of works that have been produced during two artistic residencies and as a post-event reflection. The uniting aspect is clearly the fact that both residencies are located in a rural area, however, one is in Tārgale, Latvia (‘Tārgale’s Artist Residency’) and the other one is in São Gregório, Portugal (‘OSSO’) – the two compounds necessary for the beginning of the creative equation.

A part of the works exhibited has been created as after images, reprocessing memories and melting the different encounters. Significantly, the works of the artist gain a reflexive link as they have returned in a format of an indoor exhibition yet encapsulating the spirit of wilderness.