Flo Kasearu (Temnikova & Kasela Gallery)

Flo Kasearu (EE, b. 1985) is a Tallinn-based artist whose practice spans video, drawing, painting, installation and performance. She studied Painting and Photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts, and Multimedia at Universität der Künste Berlin. Working directly with various social processes – and a characteristic sense of irony – Kasearu’s previous works have addressed tradition, national identity, the academic environment of art schools, as well as local political and ideological contexts. She often exhibits beyond the white cube set up, choosing instead for her works to be shown in public spaces, at a woman’s shelter, or at her Tallinn home, which she first transformed into an eponymous house museum in 2013. In 2018, Kasearu’s Great great great grand scribble-weasel intervention took place at the Koidula Museum in Pärnu, Estonia.

 

The Violence Grows in Silence series featured in Kasearu’s 2021 solo exhibition, Cut out of Life, at Tallinn Art Hall. Abstracting and recontextualising everyday objects, the artist playfully transforms their meaning to formulate a social critique. Embodying the sense of neglect and stunted growth that stems from constant maltreatment, the project aspires to illustrate the suffering of women facing domestic violence.

 

Monument of the Living Artist is a self-portrait bust from 2012, which depicts the artist wearing a shower cap. A missing nose inspires comparisons with ancient Greek and Roman sculptures, lending the work a superficial timelessness. In fact, this self-portrait was never made to conserve the blooming beauty of the young artist forever; deliberately filled with plant seeds, it was instead intended to be subverted and changed. Installed outdoors at Flo Kasearu’s House Museum for the past 7 years, the work has also been affected by both local weather conditions and vandalism.

 

www.flokasearu.eu

 

Artist is presented by Temnikova & Kasela Gallery