Arrowgroup’s exhibition ‘In muddy water’ (‘Sogases vees’)

28.09.2024-30.04.2025

The exhibition of the artist group –> Arrowgroup is a crossover of metaphors and fairy tales, language play and bitter imagery.

The installation created specifically for the gallery of the Kalamaja Museum refers to serious questions with humorous comparison and spatial layering. A stalled and an accelerated moment in time are visible at once. In addition to the artistic side, the piece has a historical dimension, a regional reflection and a sweet air of museumness.

The exhibition is based on two voluminous collage series:
‘In muddy water I’ (‘Sogases vees I’, collage, object, installation) 2019 – consists of 230 colourful print images in A3 format that, for scientific-propagandistic purposes, introduce industrially caught fish on the territory of the former USSR. The hardcover map, issued in 1949, began its life helping art school teachers and ended up in the supply room, finding less and less use.

In the hands of the Arrowgroup artists, the beautiful fish images have undergone a delicate but fundamental shift and fish eyes have transformed into human eyes.

‘In muddy water II’ (‘Sogases vees II’, collage, interactive audience programme at the exhibition) 2019 is a series of figures consisting of a large number of elements, created by us and the visitors of the exhibition and exhibited in Haapsalu at –> Arrowgroup’s exhibition. The figures are both fish and people.

The plan is to create a special animation for the Kalamaja exhibition, i.e. to make these figures move on the screen as well as on the walls.

–> Arrowgroup (–> Noolegrupp in Estonian) is an art group operating since 2004, consisting of Triinu Jürves (b. 1974) and Villem Jahu (b. 1985).

–> Arrowgroup’s works are mostly installations or performative environments and objects used to visualise a figuratively addressed topic or problem. Often using video or sound art, the aim is always to create a site-specific solution with a clean and clear image. In most cases, the group’s work is interactively inclusive or relates to public space. –> Arrowgroup is no stranger to humour and often uses multilayered cultural references.
The list of exhibitions includes 15 solo exhibitions and more than 40 joint projects, group exhibitions and performances in Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Germany, Slovakia, France and the UK.

See also: noolegrupp.blogspot.com