Artist turns first exhibition into a study of the self

Andre Joosep Arming’s first solo exhibition, “Chain Reaction,” fills Tallinn’s Hobusepea Gallery with an abundance of material, ERR’s Hanno Soans writes in a review published by Sirp.

The exhibition, on view at the gallery until September 27, centres on Arming’s heart transplant, which the review describes as the defining axis of his work. Arming is both the youngest artist Soans has written about and, because he is living a second life, the oldest.

“Andre Joosep Arming has sad eyes, firm preferences and a somewhat accusatory look at the world,” Soans writes. “He has the right to that.”

Hobusepea Gallery is relatively small and usually presents exhibitions that can be taken in within one or two breaths. This time, however, the space is packed with material. Even a diligent visitor may leave feeling as though they owe the artist an hour of their time.

Soans describes the effect as saturation, with fear of missing out harnessed to the artistic project. Arming is evidently aware of this and calls himself a maximalist.

The exhibition opened on August 27 with a two-horse carriage turning into the narrow street outside the gallery. Wearing a black-and-white costume created for the occasion by fashion designer Karl-Christoph Rebane, Arming rose from the carriage and read from a scroll.

The opening performance, which balanced on the edge of farce, drew an unusually large crowd to Hobusepea Street. Some attendees were invited to participate, appearing in masks or full costumes. Although thoroughly theatrical, the performance drew less on traditional theatre than on the coded and obsessive identity games of pop culture, from David Bowie to Lady Gaga.

The frozen artificiality of the event, also present in many of Arming’s early videos in the gallery’s basement, lasted for a single, strangely prolonged moment. It then gave way to a more conventional opening reception designed to offer photo opportunities.

Text receded behind the image, while the manifesto became a souvenir to take away within the framework of relational aesthetics. Life and art doubled each other, the review argues, because the selfie format is the aesthetic centre of “Chain Reaction.”