Asko Künnap returns to childhood passions with photographic altarpieces

Artist Asko Künnap has returned to interests he pursued as a child and teenager, including photography, design, making altarpieces and board games, he told ERR’s cultural programme OP.

Six photographic-series altarpieces are on display in the palm house at Tallinn Botanic Garden in an exhibition titled “Fenster im Fenster”. The works bring together cities, travel impressions, moments and reflections. Although it could be called a photography exhibition, Künnap said he sees it primarily as an exhibition of stories, centred on large, mostly black-and-white altarpieces.

Künnap said his interest in altarpieces began when he was six and saw the Rode altar at St Nicholas Church. He was so taken with it that he began making his own from cardboard, including figures made of plasticine. He made dozens during primary school, but they were later eaten by rats at his grandmother’s house.

The photographs in the new works were mostly taken on trips. Künnap described the process as a game played in two stages: first taking pictures and trying to shape a story on location, then combining them with older photographs from different places to play it through again.

Alongside photography, Künnap writes, designs and publishes books, and makes board games. He joked that, despite being over 50, he is now doing the things he was occupied with in primary school and his early teens.