Markus Kasemaa

My works are subconscious reflections of myself and my surrounding. They are often born from lines of automatic drawing where I intuitively notice and emphasize shapes and images probably important for me at that specific moment.

The figures depict general ideas, themes or character lines and not so much specific individuals or persons. This is one reason why they do not have faces - as soon as I start adding faces they become too personal. The viewer is of course free to connect figures to specific persons. 

I deliberately avoid interpreting my works too deep neither for myself nor for the viewer as this would limit other possible interpretations. For the same reason they do not have “poetical” or “creative” names but just general descriptions. I would also call them a kind of “psychological ink-tests” to be used by myself or the viewer to reflect oneself depending on mood of the moment or nature. I am sure one can find both dramatic and depressive side but also satire, grotesque and humor.

I address both wider social and more intimate personal level – the issues are often the same, either the same behaviors present on both levels or the characteristics of an individual often affecting wider social trends. Traumatic violent history of the region I live in, violence toward my country and continuous threat of the history to repeat, are quite obviously present. Liberty in personal relations as well as on wider social level is important for me. But there are many other levels and backgrounds.

My aim is not (only) to create positive emotions but touch all aspects of life – the same way as most of literature, film, theatre, music does, being not always “beautiful” but often also violent, depressive, obscene, etc,. But if we “consume” and value visual art as a temporary impulse (like watching a movie or reading a book or listening to music) and not as a decorative element that should be tolerable for years, many barriers will hopefully disappear.

I work in traditional techniques like oil, acrylic, ink, graphite but I often use modern digital techniques mixed with traditional. For me value of an art piece comes from the idea or image or content, not so much from the used technique or material.

In addition to traditional galleries I like to take my art “to people” – city-space, shopping-centers, schools, libraries, online, etc. An exciting direction for me is the concept of “office-exhibitions” that allows me to approach new audience and expose art for them repeatedly during longer periods. E.g. my art has been exhibited in offices of Skype, Estonian Supreme Court, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, etc. There is a permanent exhibition in Ministry of Economic Affairs of Estonia.