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Liis Tedre

  • Fine Arts, Graphic Art
  • BA
  • Table stories
  • Tutor: Kadri Toom
  • Cyanotype, intaglio, relief print
  • Series, a 35 x 40 cm
Table stories, Liis Tedre

The table, being the object of my series of graphics, is the central piece of many everyday as well as life-changing events, but also the concealer of the world under the table. An important object of practical value within every day contains the potential of playfulness. The table began to change in the work process, it started to tell stories and create new meanings.

“Table stories” emerged playfully, intuitively and process based. I let myself be guided by the process yet stayed partially as a bystander. Through endlessly pivoting stories and visuals emerging during the creation, I arrived at more organized forms and structures. I have simplified the form and removed the irrelevant, allowing free space and blank surfaces in the works to create room for new stories and foster playfulness.

The works do not depict those sitting around or behind the table. I create space for the viewer to interpret, leaving only the table and its location in the room. Since the table is the central object of everyday life and communication takes place around, above and below the table, these meanings seem to be stored in a space without people.

I am limited by norms and hesitations about portraying a person. When I start to abstract, the depicted become symbols and I can get out from under the table. The table no longer seems to be a table. There remains an element, an object through which I tell various random stories of everyday life that have inspired me: family models, distances in between, closed, and open spaces. The table as the main character has become safe for me.

Restrictions and chancellery are often formed right behind the table, where the final touch is given along with the signing of transactions. Restrictions are “settled” and the table has become a co-culprit. I give freedom to the table with my work – I bring it to the picture. Playfully and floaty, creating its own stories.

It is pleasant when the works create stories in the viewers that they can develop further themselves.