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The Ministry for Lost Sheep A solo exhibition at the Hobusepea Gallery Tallinn - November 2009 A painting of a cartoon character, “Shaun the sheep”, a very able and humorous chap, is on a carpet which spent many years in a sheep barn and smells of sheep. Next to it is a door on which is a plaque with the name of the ministry engraved on it. The door is from the artist’s “outhouse” and a photograph shows the artist as the minister in his office. The video clip is of an old comedian musician called George Formby, famous for farce and popular music in the 30s, 40s and 50s. The song was very popular in its day “when I’m cleaning windows”The ladder is made from Chamois leather (softened sheep skin), a traditional window cleaning cloth in England. The logos of the two main banks of Estonia have been forged in iron to create branding irons. Their images have been burnt into an old goat’s skin and a sheepskin. The box with hats is a version of a typical seaside entertainment object which has been around for decades and still exists in some holiday resorts. Usually inside would be a large doll, a caricature of a policeman or sailor, which laughed manically when you put a coin into it. However it never seems to make people laugh! At the opening my 6 year old son sat in the box, tried on the different characters hats and laughed along with the recorded laughter. The stilts with shoes are carved from a Fir tree and are laminated with pages from an Estonian Bible. A mixed construction of wood, books and metal. A prosthesis with a soft, sheepskin attachment for the stump of a leg. A Bible and Koran sandwich a copy of Darwin’s Origin of the species.Robust bolts have been put through the books and are tightly fixed, imprisoning Darwin. |
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