In the work "Hidden Man" I am using Lenin's portrait. This year is 100 years since civil war in Finland, and by creating the artwork I was thinking and analyzed the histories of Finland and Latvia.
With this work I want to show what happens if the "reds" wins. Red occupation in Latvia happened later - in1940 and ended with symbols taking away after 1990. We have story about old tradition to take dying people to forest and leave them there or leave all bad thoughts in the woods. And that what happens with Lenin statues after 1990. I was just 4 years old and remember how I and my mother was watching taking it off from the center of my city. At that time I didn’t know that was the new start. Lenin's portraits and figures was hidden in the forests.
In the occupation time in Latvia, if an artist wanted to get some work or get in the art union, he needed to know how to make Lenin portrait and the soviet working lines, in that way they tried to delete traditions and thinking as in First Latvia (1918-1940) and putting that man in the centers of all biggest cities of Latvia. Luckily that ended and we, like another countries can think and do - or not to do like free human beings.
