Flo Kasearu & Elīna Vītola, Host & Parasites

For Flo Kasearu’s first UK solo show Host, visitors will not be able to visit her major piece the Flo Kasearu House Museum as this is in Tallinn, so instead she has produced soap replicas of her 113-year-old family house. This will not only provide a lifetime’s soap supply for Flo’s home sauna but help divert her fear of running out of soap to other worrisome dangers, such as her wooden house catching fire, the gap in her garden fence, and public space being ‘parasited’ by order.

At the same time in Parasites, Flo Kasearu & Elīna Vītola are hosted in Dorich House, the 1930s former studio-home of artist Dora Gordine (1895-1991) in Kingston upon Thames. The artists’ interventions in the museum include unassumingly tiny objects which encapsulate immense power and potential. The miniature monuments are bronze casts of ticks, thorns, deer poo and seeds among others, which parasite on Gordine’s sculptures, connecting the museum and the neighbouring Richmond Park.

Flo Kasearu and Elīna Vītola at Dorich House Museum, Kingston University, London. Photo by Borbála Soós.

Flo Kasearu, Elina Vitola, Parasites at Dorich House Museum, Kingston University, London.

Dorich House Museum, Kingston University, London. Photo by Jack Elliot Edwards.

Flo Kasearu and Elīna Vītola, Parasites at Dorich House Museum, Kingston University, London. Photo by Jack Elliot Edwards.

Flo Kasearu, Elina Vitola, Parasites at Dorich House Museum, Kingston University, London. Photo by Ellie Laycock.

Flo Kasearu and Elīna Vītola, Parasites at Dorich House Museum, Kingston University, London. Photo by Ellie Laycock.

Flo Kasearu and Elīna Vītola, Parasites at Dorich House Museum, Kingston University, London. Photo by Jack Elliot Edwards.

Flo Kasearu and Elīna Vītola, Parasites at Dorich House Museum, Kingston University, London. Photo by Ellie Laycock.

Flo Kasearu and Elīna Vītola, Parasites at Dorich House Museum, Kingston University, London. Photo by Jack Elliot Edwards.

Events | All Welcome

Flo Kasearu Artist Talk
Wednesday 29 November, 2-4pm
Main Lecture Theatre, Kingston School of Art
Estonian artist Flo Kasearu (b 1985) will talk about her working processes, including how she uses irony in her practice to reflect on the absurdity of world around. The Flo Kasearu House Museum which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2023 is a sigh-specific art project across the attic, basement and backyard of the Flo’s house in Tallinn. The house museum hosts many of her previous and ongoing works and collaborative projects. After the talk, you are also welcome for a free tour of Flo Kasearu’s solo exhibition Host at Stanley Picker Gallery, where you can encounter various instances of her house museum.

Host & Parasites Artist-led Tour with Drinks
Thursday 30 November
4.30 – 6pm Stanley Picker Gallery
6.30 – 8pm Dorich House Museum
Join us for a tour of the exhibition Host at Stanley Picker Gallery followed by Parasites at our Kingston University partner venue, Dorich House Museum. Artist Flo Kasearu will guide visitors in her solo show at the gallery and discuss her collaborative working processes with Elīna Vītola for the museum exhibition.

Biography

Flo Kasearu (b. 1985) lives and works in Tallinn, Estonia. Over the past 10 years Flo has been living, working and hosting visitors in the Flo Kasearu House Museum in Tallinn, Estonia. She parasites in private and public spaces, living off various social processes, and using irony as her characteristic artistic tool. She is represented by Temnikova & Kasela. www.flokasearu.eu

Elīna Vītola (b. 1986) lives and works in Riga, Latvia. Her work varies from paintings to complex communal installations involving several other artists and creative practitioners. She has been a host in “Artists Crisis Center”, “Monumental Café”, and Low Gallery in Riga. She is represented by Kogo Gallery. www.elinavitola.com

Dora Gordine (1895-1991) was born in Latvia and first exhibited in Estonia. Forging her reputation as a sculptor in Paris, London, and Berlin, from 1930 Gordine worked and travelled in Southeast Asia before settling in London, where Dorich House was built to her own design a ‘deer’s leap’ from Richmond Park. Following Gordine’s death, the Grade II listed building, an exceptional example of a modern studio house, was acquired and renovated by Kingston University and is now a museum. www.dorichhousemuseum.org.uk

Supported by

Supported by Kingston University, Arts Council England, the Estonian Ministry for Culture, Estonian Embassy in London, Estonian Contemporary Art Development Center, and State Culture Capital Foundation, Latvia. Courtesy Temnikova & Kasela and Kogo Gallery.