Press Release

Love Matters in Art meets Down the Rabbit Hole at the National Art Gallery in June

Exciting exciting! The National Art Gallery of Namibia presents Niina Turtola and Kirsten Wechslberger exhibiting their views on the status quo of life and the society.

Love Matters in Art / Vol.013 Hate me and see if I care / Niina Turtola

When you saw the Love Matters in Art logo on the streets, did you think it was Land Matters? Look again. If you have not seen anything, are you actually awake? We are conditioned to see things as we see them, not as they are. “The world as we present it to ourselves is an effect of interpretation.” Niina Turtola remembers reading Umberto Eco’s statement. We live in a parallel universe.

This self-initiated low-key and low-tech design is a project by the fertilizer of the psycho-visual probability, Niina Turtola, a Master of Arts in graphic design originating from Finland. Her exhibition is named after a bumper sticker that said “Hate me and see if I care”. Love Matters in Art is an homage to typography (the art of arranging typeface), simplicity, individualism and simply – honesty. There is no commercial client, institution, manipulation or special effect stipulating what the project is, it is her project about the society – printed by a printer and copied by a copy machine.

Love Matters in Art project collects excerpts from published texts, news, statistics, poems and facts from their original source. She retypes, designs and reproduces them into different standard A-series paper sizes with a typographic design. Pure text, pure typography! No photo manipulation. If you think what a poster is, think again. Read the Love Matters in Art Manifesto online: http://lovemattersinart.blogspot.com/. This project has received funding from the Finnish Embassy in Windhoek.

Down the Rabbit Hole / Kirsten Wechslberger

The second exhibiting artist Kirsten Wechslberger felt like she had a pipe down her throat for the first 30 years of her life which force fed her unwholesome information, spewed out by the mass media and society which left her bloated, nauseated and undernourished. During this time she went through fits of rage, tears of anger and disbelief protecting an incredibly sensitive ‘her’.  Just like the media she pushed and pushed until the day she discovered peace by choosing love. Today, even though still far from perfect (what is perfect?) she makes mostly conscious decisions and has learned to pick her daily ‘diet’ for herself.” 

Kirsten explains even though she had no actual Morpheus to give her the choice between the blue and the red pill as Neo had in the pop culture film The Matrix she still woke up. The viewer of her work will have to physically step into her mixed media installation which includes mediums such as digital visual display, sound, light, wood and rope amongst others. She challenges the viewer to become aware of their life and life choices while seeing, hearing, and feeling. Come and see how far the rabbit hole goes.

Exhibitions run at the National Art Gallery of Namibia during the time of 7^th of June until 3^rd of July. The opening is on Thursday, 6 June at 18:00. Welcome!