MARTA VEINBERGA visual artist

COLLECTIVE BLANKET
(ES ZINU, KA KĀDREIZ MAN DĀRZIŅŠ BŪS... )
prize stickers, adhesive film, tape on plywood
152.5 x 152.5 cm
2016

This work is about a mismatch between human dreams and actual experiences.

An inspiration for this work comes from a sticky schlager song (it's lyrics telling about one's dream to have "a little garden where roses will bloom and will be no heartbreak") which was a hit for the generation born in a mid-war period in Latvia. Many of those people (like the author’s grandmother) were born and grew up in a countryside – a life now referred to as idyllic – but later moved to the cities and very often ended up living in the least attractive Soviet panel houses. Finally, all that is left from the little dream garden is a vine, shared with hundreds of other residents.

To grow any kind of garden around one’s house can also be seen in a wider context of decoration and personalization: however great or faulty be the architecture, different plants, figurines, Christmas lights, little paintings or even doilies will inevitably accompany it – and the prize stickers come in here pointing at the human inclination to collect things.