MARTA VEINBERGA visual artist

LETTER-BOXES
photo lithography + stone lithography
series of 24 originals, each 56 x 42 cm
2022

The central image of this series of lithographs is a standard letter-box, the model with semi-transparent bottom, from the period of Soviet occupation of Latvia. It came into wide circulation at the beginning of 70ties. Nowadays it can mostly be found in the city backyards on the facades of dilapidated wooden buildings.

For the author this letter-box is attractive as a symbol of the process where ubiquitous things become marginal in the course of time. This object is also a witness to the aging and personalization of mass produced objects – 50 years later one can hardly identify the original production colours.

In this series the letter-box is depicted in the scale 1:1 using a photograph as the first layer. However every piece from the “Letter-boxes” is an original because of the hand printed colour variations and manual processing of some details.

In the “Letter-boxes” the author continues her theme of mass-produced items and standard-type architecture. Her urge to focus on the Soviet-period design heritage is related to the fact that she has been born in the 80ies and remembers many of these objects as an integral part of her childhood with a specific emotional saturation.

Commissioned by Ars28 Gallery, Zürich.

Created in collaboration with Steindruckerei Wolfensberger, Zürich.

Supported by the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia.