Back Posted on

Dreaming of flying cars

Liina Lelov 11.02–01.03.2022

On Friday, 11th of February at 18:00 Liina Lelov’s exhibition DREAMING OF FLYING CARS will be opened in the A-Gallery VAULT. The exhibition will be open until 1st of March.

In the middle of the 20th century, during the Space Race, predictions by futurologists were widely circulated. Sci-fi comics and literature gained unforeseen popularity and the future in the 21st century was described as the age of flying cars and continuous space-tourism, where no-one has to work unless they want to. However, looking around now, the question arises, why dream at all? In those stories I was promised a different world from the current reality. In the year 2020 we were teaching people how to wash their hands with soap and China and India held wars with stones. The rich become richer and the poor poorer, we stand on the brink and in the midst of various crises, and the future seems darker than ever. 

The jewellery exhibited fits two worlds – the dream promised to me by predictions and sci-fi movies and the current world, where one is recommended to sing “Happy Birthday” twice while washing hands, so that a grown-up’s hands could get thoroughly clean. 

Safety vessels are a part of the survival kit of a future that is descending into triviality – we will not be using our jetpacks to jump into exhilarating adventures. Instead, before leaving home, we will check whether the batteries are fully loaded and if we have our ice grips, corkscrew, credit card and a bar of soap with us.

The dreams we are promised haven’t changed much – however now I can see more clearly that the promises are just old tricks poured into new moulds.

Safety vessels

Photopolymer, soap, epoxy, silver, silicone

Liina Lelov (1983) is a jewellery artist with a soul of a librarian pursuing a master’s degree in Estonian Academy of Arts. Her works are connected with future dreams and society’s pain points. Liina Lelov’s works have been exhibited in several group exhibitions both in Estonia as well as abroad.