The series of photographs “True/ False” and “Dining in the national style” are questioning the idea of national/cultural identity. The artworks were supposed to ask questions such as
What does it mean to belong to one’s place? How does memory rooted in the landscape form one’s identity?How national identity is constructed?
What does it mean to belong to one’s place? How does memory rooted in the landscape form one’s identity?How national identity is constructed?
The colour of the objects on the photos form the colours of Latvian national red-and-white flag. Some photos are constituted from pieces of the urban environment, while others are made of the everyday objects, found in houses of Latvian, living in Riga and in London
The objects on a still life form Latvian flag. At the mean time the “latvianess” of each object could really be questioned. Some of them simply don’t have anything in common except being the right colour and in the right place. Others, may have a connection with Latvian identity, though this connection could be argued as false if interpreted from the official viewpoint.
As a continuation of this theme, I made another set of photos, which was called “Dining in the national style”. This was made in response to Sophie Calle “Monochromatic Diet”. The still-lifes were made out of foodstuff that is sold in small ethnic shops in London.For now there are only two still lives one made from food from shop selling mostly Latvian and Lithuanian food, and another with Gujarat food, but I plan to continue with other shops - Polish, Romanian, Afro-Caribean and others.
