You are here with your machine.
So am I.
A gift for Russian Embassy in London, domobaal, London (2022)
As recently the Russian Federation Embassy in London did not accept our gift, we decided to place it back over the entrance to domobaal gallery to demonstrate how well it could fit over the entrance gate of the Russian Federation Embassy in London, just in case the ambassador changes his mind. The work will be on view throughout the summer.
RED SQUARE NEEDS PINK PONIES, Soo 28-13, Tallinn (2022)
https://petkeen.com/russian-horse-breeds/. (a horse not a pony) screenshots
Soo 28-13, Tallinn
"It's a real challenge. And something I heard a lot at the beginning of the project is that it's not possible," said Tamm. However, he sees the potential impacts of the project as outweighing any challenges. He estimates if it is successful each apartment block will save two thirds of the energy they currently use. This means shifting from 270 kilowatt-hours per square meter per year (kWh/m2y) for each building to 90 kWh/m2y. The project aims to reduce the energy consumption of each block by two thirds.
Estonia's Soviet-era housing finds new eco-friendly future
https://www.dw.com/en/estonias-soviet-era-housing-finds-new-eco-friendly-future/a-49616738
what can't we just create, Mark Rothko Art Centre, Daugavpils (2021-22)
How do you help a butterfly with wet wings?, Publiek Park, Friends of S.M.A.K. museum, Ghent (2021)
“That’s specific to all parks. The [gay] scene is always there. Otherwise it isn’t a park.” Els De Vos, The Citadelpark. A specific node in a network for (queer) desire," in D.Ferens, ed-,
Out Here: Local and International Perspectives in Queer Studies (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
Scholars Press, 2008)
Wing Development
When butterflies first emerge from their chrysalis, their wings are wet and wrinkled. This occurs due to the tight space of the chrysalis when the caterpillar is metamorphosing. After hatching, the butterfly hangs upside down, flapping its wings to straighten and dry them. The pumping action helps blood flow through the wings, too. It takes about a day for the wings to fully harden, though the butterflies may be flying within an hour or two.
Causes of Wrinkling
Any number of things can lead to deformed wings or prevent the wings from opening up properly. A butterfly's wings are very soft when it first emerges from the chrysalis. If the butterfly falls to the ground, it runs the risk of damaging its wings, causing them to become malformed. If a butterfly chrysalis that's being stored for release at a wedding or butterfly house and hatches early, it may not have enough room to fully expand its wings in the storage container. Additionally, the butterfly may have a defect, such as poor blood circulation to the wings, preventing their opening.
Help
When the butterfly first emerges you can help it by providing a safe area with plenty of room to move around. Some like to create butterfly houses with netting for the butterflies to cling to when they land. Should a butterfly fall to the ground and have trouble turning over, hover a piece of paper towel over its legs. The butterfly should cling to the paper towel and pull itself upright. Once the wing are completely dry, they are set and nothing can be done to straighten them. You can, however, provide the butterfly with a home and food for the rest of its life.
Care
When you have a butterfly with crinkled wings, it's best to take it in and provide a home for it. A large clear container or cage with mesh screen will keep the butterfly out of trouble. Place plenty of leaves, flowers and twigs in the cage for the butterfly to cling to and crawl over. Feed the butterfly with a solution of 2 parts honey and 8 parts water. Soak a sponge in the solution and place it in the cage. The butterfly should find it and start drinking the fluid.
(Information from https://sciencing.com/bring-the-outdoors-inside-with-these-nature-kits-for-kids-13763822.html )
How much you would be willing to pay for a mystery of dark matter right now? Facade of the Latvian National Opera (2021)
The St Michael brand, which was originally registered in 1928, was discontinued by M&S at the end of 1999 after its profits had dropped by 50 per cent that year. The upsurge in demand for the vintage label comes after Marks & Spencer revealed it will axe 7,000 jobs amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Daily Mail)
Have we all learned how to be human at home?, domobaal, London (2021)
What do I dream about ?
What does she dream about?
What does he dream about? The Second Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art, 2020
Different reasons why your snowman looks dirty, The Smallest Gallery in Riga (2020)
Two questions about squirrels in the Speakers'Corner London (2020)
We have four dinosaurs at home and they all are different, Code Copenhagen (2018)
There is a device which can transport your big as well as small dog to the other side, Shoreditch Library , London (2018)
Device which can transport your big as well as small dog to the other side, Careva Gallery, Riga (2018)
Great memories (sizewise) PEER, London, Art Station Dubulti, Jurmala (2016-2018)
The mechanism that grabs is watched by the hippopotamus.
It is easy to assume most activities are pretty awkward for a giraffe.
The duck finds two balls in a box, which over time has been surrounded by grass
Great memories (sizewise) including discoveries.
Great memories (sizewise) including sets.
Great memories (sizewise) including giraffe.
Traditional Butterfly Trap / Layout, UK Young Artists Biennale Derby (2016)
______________________________________________________________________
BIO
Kristaps Ancāns (b. Līvāni, Latvia) is an artist, writer and educator whose practice spans installation,
sculpture, language and moving images. Ancāns explores the confusion in the relationship between
humans, nature and machines through an evolving conceptual game with its own artificial intelligence. His
installations—often containing a kinetic component—welcome questioning, inviting uncertainty in their
relationship with the viewer. They set a dynamic play between formal values, laws of physics, sensual
references from nature into motion—on the brink of undermining each other while held in disconcerting
harmony. In the context of increasingly technological societies in the Baltics, What Do I Dream About?
(2020), a kinetic installation rooted in performativity, consists of three genderqueer machines playing with
the toy versions of themselves, which disrupt fantasies of industrial masculine power by imagining their
emancipation in relation to their intended existence. Language and its materiality is an equally integral
part of Ancāns’ practice, representing both a cerebral and retinal element in situ. How do you help a
butterfly with wet wings? (2021), a site-specific work for Citadelpark (Ghent), consists of an opaque
banner with the aforementioned words in capital letters draped above the gatehouse, which irreverently
summons the hidden memory of the park as a gay cruising area while commenting on the fragility and
resilience of LGBTQIA culture. Have we all learned how to be human at home? (2021), a sculptural
installation in laser-cut steel arched over the threshold of Domobaal Gallery (London), provokes viewers
to reconsider the home as a liminal space during the pandemic crisis fueling uncertainty and speculation;
the work immediately became the object of lively debates online and off.
Ancāns has exhibited, lectured and taught at venues internationally, including Publiek Park/S.M.A.K
Museum, The Latvian National Opera and Ballet, Riga International Biennale of Contemporary Art, Art
Station Dubulti, Careva Contemporary, Code Art Fair, Tate Exchange/Tate Modern, Museum of London,
Royal Academy of Arts London, Hyde Park-London, Central Saint Martins/UAL, PEER, Five Years,
Shoreditch Library, Derby Museum, and Art Gallery, Vienna Contemporary, Estonian Academy of Arts,
Tallinn Art Hall, Setouchi Triennale and Tokyo University of the Arts.
Ancāns has taken part in several residencies, including the Acme Studios Residency and Awards
Programme (UK), Complex Topography: the Garden (JP), Constructed (RU), Cruise of Tartu (ET). He is a
laureate of the ‘Helen Scott Lidgett Studio Award 2016/2017’(UK) and the ‘Pauls Puzinas Grant’ (LV/USA)
and was nominated for the Purvītis Prize (LV) as well as for the Arts Foundation Fellowship (UK).
Ancāns is the Head of the Master of Contemporary Art Program at the Estonian Academy of Arts and
Co head of POST, an interdisciplinary MA Program at the Art Academy of Latvia. He lives and works
between London, Riga and Tallinn.
CONTACTS
@kristaps_ancans
ABRIDGED CV
EDUCATION
2014-16 Central Saint Martins College, MA Distinction Fine Art, University of the Arts London
2015 Tokyo University of the Arts and Central Saint Martins Global Art, Joint Curriculum
2012-14 Art Academy of Latvia, BA Hons (1st) Painting
2010-12 Art Academy of Latvia, Environmental Art
SOLO PROJECTS
2022 Polar Rainbow, Foundation Bec Zmiana, Warsaw, Poland and visible across locations along the 21E meridian (upcoming)
Polar Rainbow, Time Square Arts, New York, USA and visible across locations along the 74W meridian
A Gift for Russian Embassy in London, domobaal, London
Red square needs pink ponies, Soo 28-13, Tallinn
2021-22 What can’t we just create (Nastya), Mark Rothko Art Center, Daugavpils
2021 Why shouldn't we be afraid of the dark?, Staro Riga (with Aija Smirnova)
How much you would be willing to pay for a mystery of dark matter right now?, The Latvian National Opera and Ballet, Riga
Have we all learned how to be human at home?, domobaal, London
Not far from here you can find sculptures, performances, installations and paintings,Rožupe Culture House, Latvia
2020 Different reasons why your snowman looks dirty, The Smallest Gallery in Riga
2019 Two questions about squirrels in the Speakers'Corner London, Hyde Park-London
Lead Lights, Staro Rīga, (with Aija Smirnova)
2018 Two Cakes, Five Years, London (with James Tailor)
There is, Shoreditch Library, London
We have four dinosaurs at home and they all are different, Code Copenhagen
For Household Use, Careva Contemporary, Riga
Great Memories (sizewise), Art Station Dubulti, Jurmala, Latvia
2015 Re Deuce, Cenamaximale, London (with Sivan Lavie)
2013 Constructed, Gallery of Olga Makeeva, Kemerovo, Russia
Space for Mind Migration (Connecting Cities Network), Riga / Marseille
2012 Spectators’,Light Festival ‘Staro Rīga’, Riga
2011 Seven Deadly Sins’, Proud2b Space, Riga
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 Immerse, Tallinn Art Hall in partnership with Centre Pompidou, ZKM and Tirana Art Lab (upcoming)
2022 Bad Ideas Collective, Tallinn Art Hall, City Gallery (upcoming)
Flora Fantastic: Eco-Critical Contemporary Botanical Art, apex art, New York, USA (upcoming)
Spring-22, Zuzeum Art Centre, Riga
2021 Bad Ideas Collective - Volumes 1 & 2 : An Afternoon of Parallel Reality, Lethaby Gallery, London
Publiek Park, Friends of S.M.A.K. museum, Ghent
2020 The First Edition, BadIdeasCollective.com, platform/Five Years, London
The Second Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art
2017 Seep, PEER, London
And the Horizon was Dying Over the Tourist, Republic Gallery, London
Creekside Open 2017 (selected by Alison Wilding), A.P.T Gallery, London
Dept of Subjective Archeology; Annihilation Event, Lethaby Gallery, London
Less Tight Limes, Mafa Chelsea, London
Performance ‘Impositions’, Tate Modern /Tate Exchange, Blavatnik Building
2016 The Ingram Collection Young Contemporary Talent Exhibition, Cello Factory
UKYA National Biennale: Derby 2016, Museum and Art Gallery
Industrialism, Contemporary Art Gallery Livani, Livani, Latvia
Inside/Outside, House on Patriarch Ponds, Moscow
Do, Undo, Redo, The Crossing; Lethaby Gallery, London
2015 This is Us, Museum of London
Something happened on the way from Mars, Futuro House, London
Temporary Arts Project, TAP Gallery, Southend
Remember Nature (with Gustav Metzger and Serpentine Gallery), The CSM Street
We All Draw, Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, London
Complex Topography: The Garden, Shōkō Shōreikan, Takamatsu, Japan
Human Nature, Archive Gallery, London
Summer Exhibition 2015, Royal Academy of Arts, London
At Play, SU CHELSEA Space, London
30 of 30, Gallery of Artists’ Union of Lithuania, Vilnius
30 of 30, ‘Kuldīga Artists’ Residence’, Kuldiga, Latvia
You’re The Reason Our Kids Are Ugly, The Laundry E8, London
2014 Cruise of Tartu, NOOR Gallery, Tartu, Estonia
Cultural Heritage of Visual Arts, Hall of Art Academy of Latvia
2013 Chemin de fer, Hall of Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts,
Warsaw Riga-Warsaw-Valmiera, Ice-House, Valmiera, Latvia
Place and Conveyance, Kanepe Culture Center, Riga
2012 ARS ex MACHINA, Dailes Theater, Riga
RESIDENCIES, WORKSHOPS, TALKS
2022 Residency at The Grange Projects, United Kingdom (upcoming)
Online Conversation with Zach Blas as part of "Beyond Matter" at Tallinn Art Hall
Online Conversation Great Expectations: "Virtuality and Next Generation of Artists from the Baltics" as part of "Beyond Matter" at Tallinn Art Hall
Online Conversation with Shu Lea Cheng as part of "Beyond Matter" at Tallinn Art Hall
Online Conversation with Boris Groys as part of "Matter, Non-Matter, Anti-Matter. Past Exhibitions as Digital Experiences" at Tallinn Art Hall
2021 Panel Discussion "Matter, Non-Matter, Anti-Matter. Past Exhibitions as Digital Experiences", Tallinn
Discussion panel for RIBOCA2 film 'and suddenly it all blossoms' preview in Arts Club, London
2020 The Ingram Prize Alumni Online Conversation Series with Jo Baring
2017 Workshop This Is an Art School’, Tate Modern/Tate Exchange, Blavatnik Building
2016 Residency at Warton House, Acme Residency & Awards Programme, London
2015 Residency ’Complex Topography: the Garden’, Tokyo; Takamatsu, Japan
2014 Residency ‘Cruise of Tartu’ , Tartu, Estonia
2013 Residency ‘Constructed’, Kemerovo, Russia
‘Connecting Cities – Artist and Curator Workshop Marseille’ , Marseille
2012 Workshop ‘New Media Workshop with Franz Fischnaller
AWARDS, GRANTS AND SPONSORSHIP
2022 VKKF Creative Work Development Bursary, Latvia
2021 Nominated for Estonian Academy of Arts Creative Awards, Estonia
2020 Līvāni District Annual Award in Culture, Latvia
2019 Nominated for Purvītis Prize 2019, Latvia
2018 Nominated for Arts Foundation Fellowship , UK
Nominated for Latvian Television and Radio Kilogram of Culture Award
2017 VKKF Creative Work Development Bursary, Latvia
2016 Helen Scott Lidgett Studio Award 2016/2017 Acme Studios’ Residency & Awards, UK
Nominated for Clifford Chance Sculpture Prize 2017, UK
Finalist of The Ingram Collection Prize, United Kingdom
Nominated and shortlisted for Red Mansion Art Prize, China / UK
2014 Cecil Lewis Sculpture Scholarship, University of the Arts London
Pauls Puzinas Grant in Arts, Latvia / USA
VKKF Scholarship, Latvia
Vilhelms Purvitis Premium, Art Academy of Latvia
2013 European Union Programme ‘Culture’ funding for work Space for Minds Migration
Ludolfs Liberts Grant in Arts, Latvia / USA
2012 Monthly State Scholarship at Art Academy of Latvia (2010-2014)
Laureate of the competition ‘Create Your Light, Latvia / Germany
PROFESSIONAL ROLES AND EDUCATIONAL APPOINTMENTS
2021- Co-founder and Co-head of MA POST, Fine Art Faculty at Art Academy of Latvia
Docent at Art Academy of Latvia
Curatorial Advisor for The Estonian Pavilion at 59th Venice
Chairman of the Academic Arbitration Court, Art Academy of Latvia
Docent, Fine Art Faculty at Art Academy of Latvia
2021-22 Head of MA Contemporary Art, Fine Art Faculty at Estonian Art Academy
Advisor of Chief Architect of the Riga at City Monuments Council
2020-21 Co-head of MA Contemporary Art, Fine Art Faculty at Estonian Art Academy
Initiator and developer of ACADEMIA Awards, Art Academy of Latvia in partnerships with Central Saint Martins, Helen Scott Lidgett Studio Award and ACME Studios
2019-20 Leading role in developing and managing joint public art programme 'Public Encounters' between Central Saint Martins (UAL), and Art Academy of Latvia
2018-19 Lecturer, Fine Art Faculty at Art Academy of Latvia
Visiting Lecturer, Fine Art Faculty at Art Academy of Latvia
© Kristaps Ancāns 2022