SHADY LADIES

PICNIC AT THE END OF THE ROAD

Madona Bus Station

On the way to the mythical Vidzeme gem, Madona, the curator contemplates methods of decolonizing polystyrene from the harsh empire of packaging, all while watching the landscape slip past the window. A thought arises: could Shady Ladies' practice be a renunciation of material hierarchies—where microscopic, synthesized particles of the universe play an increasingly dominant role?

The curator, born of the metropolis and steeped in the quintessence of concrete jungle aesthetics, recalls the slippery maneuvers of Shady Ladies and is reminded of object-oriented ontology—where pigments are seen not merely as tools of visual pleasure but as conveyors of mysteries, messengers of information, within a field dominated by anthropocentric experiences and overtly retinal indulgence. These reflections spark a shift in the curator’s mindset and in their modes of engaging with artworks.

Arriving at the “journey’s end,” the curator muses on the role of transit systems in constructing interregional relations, within which the artists’ installation—realized in the spirit of a true Gesamtkunstwerk—forms new links and connections, opening up uncharted horizons in the recesses of spatial communication. Here, the picnic becomes an artistic meta-practice, revealing a constellation of multifaceted forms where flora and fauna assume ethereal contours, blooming through skillfully executed gestures and conceptual formations.

Having written this sentence, the curator exhales in satisfaction and heads to “Šlāgeri” for a pork cutlet.

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Kaspars Groševs

Photos by Līga Spunde