Laura Põld
Laura Põld’s work combines disciplines such as sculpture, textiles, ceramics, video and photography. Her work explores the customs of the individual and society, various cultural rituals and their signs. The artist pays particular attention to the choice of materials, their original purpose and historical context. Using traditional handmade techniques such as ceramics and textile weaving, Laura Põld blurs the boundaries between the contemporary and the archaic. Themes of intimacy and identity, as well as the ecological subtexts, the relationship between man and nature, and ethics, are the ones to emerge in her work too.
In the exhibition “Translating and Co-labouring”, Laura Põld presented her latest works – textile installations and ceramic objects that merge the stories of people, animals and objects. The way textiles or ceramics and various raw materials reach the artist today is closely linked to tradition, old crafts and handwork. These links are evident in the works of the natural wool and ceramics, as they combine various folkloric ornaments and bold colour tones with the contemporary form. The exhibition explains the collaboration not only as the women working together, but also as the entire processing of the material, the preparation of the tools and the transfer of experience. Interpretation is understood as capturing and making sense of the stories told in songs, patterns and artworks. Through these two aspects, it is analysed how craft and art are shaped both materially and psychologically and transmitted through the collective memory of the community.
Laura Põld (b. 1984) studied ceramics at the Estonian Academy of Arts (BA), painting at the University of Tartu (MA) and sculptural conceptions and ceramics at the University of Art and Design Linz (MA). The artist is well known both in Estonia and abroad, she has been actively participating in exhibitions since 2010. Laura Põld has been awarded a number of prizes and scholarships such as the annual prize of The Cultural Endowment of Estonia (2014), Köler Prize Grand Prix (2016), the grand prize of The Cultural Endowment of Estonia (2018), the ISCP New York studio grant (2019) and the Claus Michaletz Preis (2021). The artist is currently based in Tallinn and Vienna.
