Diāna Tamane. The sea is you
Curator: Siim Preiman
On Thursday, 30 March at 6 pm, Diāna Tamane’s solo exhibition The Sea is You will be opened at Tallinn City Gallery. The artist’s series of watercolours is based on meditation and breathwork, drawing attention to the uncertainty of artistic work and the need to take time out. The curator of the exhibition is Siim Preiman.
At the exhibition, Diāna Tamane will display a series of watercolours completed over the past two years. These works are a step towards a body-based practice, where art grows out from life and vice versa – gently and naturally. Synchronised breathing and painting results in intuitive and flowing works that do not drain energy, but rather give it.
Primarily known for her photographic works so far, Tamane has drawn material from life itself before too, relying on family relationships and home archive material to create her works. This exhibition could be seen as a natural continuation or even deepening of the same interest: attention has shifted from the relationships surrounding the artist to her relationship with herself.
“It seems to me that one of the central dilemmas in art is the conflict between material and creative values. In order to be competitive or successful, an artist often needs to adopt working principles that are closer to production than creation. How to deal with the realisation that your calling, the driving force of life, has become so exhausting and stressful that a threatening flame of burnout is looming on the horizon? It seems that Diāna Tamane has recognised this dangerous moment and decided that she has had enough, taken time off and started making art again from scratch: one breath and one brush stroke at a time,” Siim Preiman, curator of the exhibition reflects on the exhibition.
You are kindly invited to the opening of the exhibition on 30 March at 6 pm. The exhibition The Sea is You will be open until 4 June 2023.
Tallinn City Gallery (Harju 13) is open Wednesday to Sunday 11–6 pm. From 1 April, half-hour tours in Estonian will take place every Saturday at 1 pm. Free entry.
Diāna Tamane (1986) is an artist whose work so far is driven by her and her relatives’ personal stories. In her works she often combines new photographs and videos with materials found in her family archive, creating bridges between family and society, past and future.
Tamane graduated from Tartu Art College (BA), LUCA School of Arts in Brussels (MA) and HISK post-academic residency in Ghent. Her latest exhibitions include Typology of Touch at the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (2022), Under the Same Sky at Kogo Gallery (2022) and Half-Love at the Tartu Art Museum (2022).
