Simon Sebastian Laumann and Kärt Hammer ride into the visual noise of strokes and scratches, squares and motifs, forms and squiggles in their show "Horder" at Tütar Gallery. Join the trip and visit the gallery - the exhibition is open ´til June 29th. Photography by Joosep Kivimäe.
Simon: "The metaphor of the archaeologist speaks very directly to how I approach making art. I’m constantly sifting through the debris of everyday life—urban leftovers, discarded materials, and things that have been overlooked or forgotten. There’s a kind of excavation in what I do: digging into the layers of the city, into what people throw away or abandon. In that sense, the “visual noise” becomes a material to navigate, edit, and shape. The process is not only about selection, but also about creating new meaning and presence out of what’s been dismissed.
Kärt: "The concept of archaeologists links with my process quite well. I tend to clean something precious out from a bigger mass of disturbance. Not so much the physical process of painting itself – literally holding the brush in my hand and working with it – but everything before that. I gather visual and mental data for a long time, and then I start cancelling, destroying, and shaking off the excessive bits. Or archiving it for some other time. I read a lot (from children’s books to philosophy of science), examine my surroundings, take notes, save random pictures, sketch some ideas – basically, research the world with no specific purpose. And then at some point, it all comes to together and I know what the clean canvas needs."
Simon: "A shrine is both a personal and public gesture. It’s a space of care and attention, built from fragments. The idea of the shrine in Hoarder came from a desire to honor these found materials, not just to reuse them, but to elevate them into something almost sacred. Each work becomes a kind of sanctuary for the discarded, where the chaotic and mundane are reassembled into fragile, intentional forms. It also reflects my interest in how people navigate and assign meaning to space, particularly in urban environments."
Kärt: "Sanctuary is a state of mind where you are at peace. Some sort of abstract oblivion. I find it in the endless possibilities of abstract painting. There is always something more, some secret depth of unconsciousness. Endless nirvana if you may. In "Hoarder", we positioned my paintings a little bit too high on the walls, so you have to look up. It gives a nice nuance. Simon’s works as a counterweight are on the floor and right in front of you. So it creates a metaphor of a church."
Simon: "Working with Kärt has been an enriching and dynamic experience. She offers a distinct set of visual and cultural references from those I do, having grown up in Denmark. Our backgrounds are distinct, but that’s where the energy lies—our collaboration thrives on those differences. We both work with found materials and share an intuitive, tactile approach, but we challenge each other’s habits and ways of seeing. There’s a dialogue between two urban histories, and the meeting point becomes its own language.
Kärt: "A few of my latest projects and some future ones are more or less connected to mythical and religious stories. I use them as fairytales of our collective memories and try to bring them into the present through new visual forms. There’s always something rather smart, bizarre, mystical, and dark to play with. I like to flirt with holiness.
I believe that Simon and I are both hoarders in the sense that we hoard and gather a lot of material in our process, and in the end, less is more. We throw out a lot, but we can work like maniacs to get to the end. I guess the challenge was the question of what to throw out, but we came to our senses somehow. Killing your darlings is part of the process."