We don’t throw anything out / day

This is not a real exhibition – rather a panic attack in porcelain, viewed in a slowdown. Riga Porcelain Museum in the labyrinth -shaped rooms – from the top floor to the basement and everywhere in the middle – Skuja Braden The work covers the spatial chaos with widely extended hands and tight fists. Its artist duo Inguna Skuja and Melissa Breiden describe their latest exhibition Up, down and all around. It marks their return to the Riga Porcelain Museum after a break of twelve years since the previous exhibition Dog’s life. Dedicated 2013.

Skuja Braden work Flower power. Porcelain, auto technology. 2024 Photo – Gvido Cayon

Before eternity

« It seems to me that no newspaper came back then, but Morning panorama There was, because I remember we brought Ullu. Today is more interested in us, although the previous exhibition was good, « says Inguna Skuja. At that time, the artists exhibited portraits with real dogs belonging to their friends, family and neighbors, and created videos where the dogs ate sausages at the Easter Festival table (look for Youtube!). Since then the duo Skuja Braden Has organized solo exhibitions throughout Latvia, Europe, USA and Asia, participated in many group exhibitions, received both local and international awards and represented Latvia in the 59th International Art Biennale in Venice with an exhibition in Venice To trade water on the edge of the river.

« It seems like before eternity. Since then, your mother is dead, your father Gunar is dead, my dogs Java and Ulla are dead. The world explodes – Donald Trump destroys my country, and Putin terrorizes Europe.

The artists have created the new exhibition, studying up, down and all around themselves, in their careers and in the world that has lost common sense. « We accept fragmentation, lay a baroque narrative, geopolitical criticism and absurd mythology by linking the exhibit to the showcase just like a porcelain evidence board, » Skuja Braden.

To enlightenment

The exhibition begins with works located in the shop window of the Riga Porcelain Museum, creating a dialogue between the interior space and the outside world. Inguna Skuja highlights the work of 2008 Ugi (swimmers). « It’s about the same cat from Ginta’s blue animation. We all flow through our lives through a stream of space, at the end of which a person achieves enlightenment – through death, sometimes earlier, but mostly through death, » she reveals. The exhibition has about sixty works overall, ten of whom are young and others have not been previously departed, brought from the United States, where the artists have once lived and worked.

Skuja Braden work Ugi (swimmers) and Mesh. Porcelain, auto technology. 2008, 2022 Photo – Gvido Cayon

At the Riga Porcelain Museum Skuja Braden The works encounter the heritage of the professor of the Latvian Academy of Arts Peter Martinson. « The scale of dream work usually exceeds the size of the oven, so it must be made of several pieces. Peter Martinson said: Either do you see it from several pieces, or hide it completely. No middle ground, » remembers Inguna Skuja. She remembers another mentor, Professor Sarmīte Ozoliņa, and the advice – she encouraged to collect various items as sources of inspiration for new forms. That’s why ceramic workshops sometimes resemble savings rooms.

Over the years, the artists have been mature and now the perfect potential for ceramic media. Skuja Braden The creative performance is diverse and the duo continues to study new forms by experimenting with materials and technological capabilities. One of the latest artists of artists is The power of women. « The shape is like a bloated, immediately exploding the ready -made formation contained in the woman’s corset. On one side there is a pool with a rescue ring, the other is a tsunami, « says Inguna Skuja.

Blissful smile

After participating in the graphics and copper engraving residence, the US artists have created a series of four porcelain plates, where for the first time appears on a painted rock wall texture – a motif that they hope to include in future works. The use of this graphic representation has led the artist to rethink the relationship between paper and ceramics over time. Porcelain art is often considered a business arts that lack painting status.

« Thousands of art -filled houses burned in Los Angeles fires. The only survivors are ceramic objects and Oscar statuettes, » Melissa Breiden emphasizes, adding that ceramics have given us plates, teeth and trips in space thanks to our unique features, Porcelain is used. The artists have been devoting to this material for more than twenty -five years. In their own kind of self -portrait, the potter put on the gloves, hugging another hot pot covered with female figures, and his face flows out in a blissful smile.

« It is important for us to have the job beautiful. If we are not satisfied with the result after opening the oven, we either get something right away, or wait for years until we find the right solution. We never throw anything out, we even keep fragment. When it comes to the balance of form and painting in the duo, Melissa Breiden admits that the painted surface is often used to transform existing shapes and create a kind of optical illusion.

Skuja Braden work Melting pot. Porcelain, auto technology. 2023. Work Illuminated man. Porcelain, auto technology. 2003 Photo – Gvido Cayon

Political comment

Along with aesthetics, the artists are equally important to express their vision, observations and criticism of the world. « For the exhibition In the name of lust (2024) We created a job at the Latvian National Museum of Art Forbidden fruit, In which two women eat an apple together – not give each other and then accuses, « Why do you give me that? » We do the same thing. Otherwise, it is just like political parties that can never live and agree, « compares Inguna Sku.

The political comment is also found in the museum space dedicated to the Soviet ideology, where a vase with Vladimir Putin’s image and a small plate with Vladimir Lenin is exhibited. « We have two Vladimiri. Together. Two shit pieces, » the artist is direct. On the other side of the vase, she depicted Catherine the Great with Melis Breiden. The Empress was a porcelain fan and ordered a special set for himself, which has been created for four years using 3,000 forms. « She wanted the best for Russia and its people. He wants the best for himself and his closest circles, » Melissa Breiden emphasizes.

Directly against the two Vladimirs, Donald Trump with a gunshot wound in the head is visible – a work that was created before an attempt at 2024, when Donald Trump was injured in the ear. « We set up this work during his first campaign. It was standing on the shelf of the workshop. A rat ran past, overturned a box that fell to work and broke the right, » reveals Inguna Skuja. Initially, the title of the work was Collaboration with rat, But after the incident with Donald Trump it was renamed The prophecy.

Skuja Braden work Predictation, What was made before the attempt at the Donald Trump 2024, when he was injured in his ear. Porcelain, auto technology. 2016 Photo – Gvido Cayon

The hands of a teacher

Exhibition Top, down and all around The last (or maybe the first) work is the handy – tightly put together, slightly concave palms. « These are the hands of my art and Buddhist teacher, » says Melissa Breiden. At the Riga Porcelain Museum, these hands form a visual conversation with the work of Latvia’s first professional ceramicist Rudolf Pelse. « He is like the father of Latvian ceramics, but no mothers. I don’t know why, because all the other works here were created in factories and made by women. The men put it in the ovens, but they made, painted and whipped. My girlfriend’s mom was a lifelong salt dish.

The artist reveals that she is happy to read the expenses of this museum such as a series Porcelain’s life stories, A monograph about an artist and graphic designer at the Riga Porcelain Plant Aija Mūrniece (born 1937) and a long -time artist, shape and decor designers at the same factory long Dreiblat (born 1933). « With the publication of the book, Ilga Dreiblate finally received the long -deserved recognition – even her children said, » We did not know that she was such an important artist! « She just went to the factory every day and worked, » emphasizes Inguna Skuja.

Skuja Braden work Dear. Porcelain, auto technology. 2025 and work Eve. Porcelain, auto technology. 2025 Photo – Gvido Cayon

Duo Skuja Braden He continues to rewrite the history of porcelain art and to create alternative narratives from the woman’s point of view. At the beginning of May Inguna Skuja and Melissa Breiden will go to Georgia, where they will participate in the art residence for a month and start building their latest series The Shape of what is missing – a form missing.

Skuja Braden

Exhibition Top, down and all around

Riga Porcelain Museum until 8.VI