Form as Function

Curated group exhibition

Form as Function explores the multidimensional concept of “form” in contemporary Estonian photography, moving beyond traditional representation. Featuring works by Paul Kuimet, Kristina Õllek, and Ruudu Ulas, the exhibition treats the medium of photography as a tactile engagement with the world, inviting viewers to critically interact with the image surface where thought and matter converge.

Paul Kuimet, Kristina Õllek, and Ruudu Ulas each approach photography as a material medium, expanding its possibilities through a shared interest in the physical process and material construction of the photograph. For them, form is not merely a visual component but a radical element that shapes meaning. The exhibition surpasses the conventional understanding of “form follows function” found in architectural history, instead treating the photographic image as an active, dynamic force that bridges aesthetic, political, sociohistorical, and psychological dimensions.

This deep engagement with materiality and surface tension is evident throughout the gallery space. Kristina Õllek treats the photographic surface as a sedimentation of geological time. In her research-driven investigations of the Baltic Sea’s fragile ecosystems, she integrates grown sea salt crystals, cyanobacteria, and fluorescent pigments to expand the photograph into sculptural, fossil-like forms that speak to slow ecological violence. Meanwhile, Paul Kuimet blends 16mm film projection and structural assemblages to examine the ideological undersides of modernist history. Tracing reproducible forms from the 1851 Crystal Palace to modern finance capitalism, his works explore how projection technologies and architectural transparency relate to space, capital, and the shifting illusions of immateriality.

Anchoring these historical and ecological inquiries to the domestic sphere, Ruudu Ulas reframes photography as a site of surface tension between bodies, objects, and the spaces we inhabit. Through her site-responsive sculptural installation Material Resistance and the series Difficult Objects, she translates the psychological anxieties of contemporary living into physical experiences. By distorting scale and folding the photographic surface, Ulas invites viewers into intimate, tangible encounters with the unknown. Ultimately, the exhibition reveals how these artists critically and physically engage with a rapidly changing world, proving that sense-making relies as much on touch and material presence as it does on sight.

Curator: Paulius Petraitis
Artists: Paul Kuimet, Kristina Õllek, Ruudu Ulas

November 19 – 30, 2024 | Prospektas Gallery, Vilnius
Supported by: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Nordic Culture Point, Lithuanian Council for Culture
Documentation: Arturas Valiauga, Paul Kuimet

Press: Echo Gone Wrong | Geistė Marija Kinčinaitytė