Shimmering star Magenta. Was it a dream or was it real?

We are happy to present a solo show “Shimmering star Magenta. Was it a dream or was it real?” by Kogo gallery represented artist Kristi Kongi.

She ran towards me. Being so spatial.
Big Magenta doesn’t move, after all. She moves in our souls. But not at twilight.

Could you find a form for this luminosity? How could it be painted? A greyness has entered the colours. And you can feel how they are moving towards indigo.

The main theme of the exhibition is colour and the journey of colours. A journey from one place to another. Or for example, a journey home from some place. From the studio to home. Or a journey from Tallinn to Tartu or Tartu to Tallinn. Journeys are endless. I consider the journey inside a person to be the main thing. Which has a beginning and an end, but everything can also be endless. Every moment has its own journey, which is mostly affected by outside forces. We are changed by the moment in which we live.

Magenta. Pure Magenta. The other colours, like chrome green, golden ochre, cadmium red, lilac, orange, indigo, etc. are bystanders. The bystanders are always mixed colours, never pure. When I think of colours and about where colours come from, they are usually connected with specific places. I have usually experienced these places on the way somewhere or from somewhere.

During the last few years, as I travel around, I have written down the names of colours. I have discovered that by describing these places in this way, according to colours, my recollection of the experience is more precise and true. We each understand and perceive colours differently. When I paint I think of colour as a symbol. When I tell stories I am also influenced by the historical significance of colours. How colours have spoken at different times. In my solo exhibition at Kogo gallery, I am working with new research. I tell stories through colours.

Magenta. She can be me, but she could be you. In this exhibition, there are descriptions from morning to morning, from day to day, from spring 2020 to spring 2021 and moments from different seasons, days and hours. I am interested in how we notice our surroundings. This is what I work on each day.

Kristi Kongi

I look towards the sun, I close my eyes and notice how colours and shapes pass before my eyes. You don’t even need to leave home to do this. Of course, it is even better to do this by some forest lake in the midst of the sounds of nature and the smell of fresh air, experiencing a pleasant exhaustion after a long walk. Where do these colours and shapes come from? Are they memories? Kristi Kongi has told me that for her the most inspiring and most creative time is autumn and winter, especially during the dark time. The last twelve months and a little more could be thought of as an endless darkness or maybe it has given us time to see the budding of the first leaves and see all the beautiful colours right here.

There is complexity and diversity in colour – colour isn’t black and white. How can colours be synthesised and combined, what is their effect, and how do they affect each other, what do they mean and what are the signals they send? See how colours and the whole room changes when the light changes. And finally, how do you arrive at something, for example this exhibition*…
Kristi Kongi’s exhibition “Shimmering star Magenta. Was it a dream or was it real” is the second in the Kogo gallery 2021 programme titled “Ecology–Economy”. Now if we think economically, with a full belly and roof over our heads, what is the next thing that is really important?

Liina Raus, Kogo gallery

* The first fruits of this process were on show in June 2020 here at Kogo Gallery in the group exhibition “Time to dream or fear?” in which Kristi Kongi participated with her series “Is there any light and colour left?”

Graphic design by Alexandra Samulenkova.

Exhibition photos by Marje Eelma.

The exhibition is supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment, the City of  Tartu and Akzo Nobel Baltics AS.

Thanks to Angeliina Liivlaid, Maria Hommik, Urmo Teekivi, Hele-Riin Juhkama, Maria Shamshuvarova, Mari Möller, Verena de Lange, Elena Past, Argo Otsma, Tanel Paliale, Ahti Lill, Eike Eplik.