Field of Exercises
Mixed media installation / 3D printed resin, watercolor, alcohol ink marker, steel, digital print, mirror film
Solo exhibition at TUR, Riga, Latvia
20/08 – 20/09/2025
Sound Design: Kārlis Tone
Curator and text: Edd Schouten
Photo: Kristīne Madjare
Līga Spunde has transformed the space of TUR into a field of exercises: an abstract training ground where sculptural objects invite the visitor to rehearse human virtues. These large-scale 3D-printed forms take the shape of gestures – an embrace, interlocked hands, a stance of confidence – that evoke a sense of strength, empathy, tenderness, and care. They are not props for literal exercise, but propositions for the imagination: reminders of the irreducible movements that define our shared humanity. This conceptual field emerges against the backdrop of a world that feels increasingly ungovernable, shaped by authoritarian politics, ecological collapse, and wars waged with impunity. Spunde counters with a precise and quietly radical proposal: to rehearse belief in simple gestures, to return to the body as a site of resilience. The works do not offer solutions, but they open a space for rehearsal, for practicing the possibility of repair. They encourage a moment of self-recognition, a pause to reflect on the gestures that sustain our humanity. Scattered around the field of exercises are several smaller, almost imperceptible sculptures that invite a different discipline, to walk slowly with intention and engagement. To practice mindfulness as a human discipline.
Spunde is known for her meticulously constructed installations in which digital prints of cinematic compositions, often combined with sculptural elements, converge to examine how personal perception collides with collective structures. In Field of Exercises she departs from her signature use of the flat image and ventures into sculptural form, experimenting with the possibilities of large-scale 3D printing. This shift is not merely technical but conceptual. Where earlier works explored digital overload, psychological fracture, and emotional dissonance, here she turns toward the fragile prospect of recovery. Each sculpture operates as an open instruction, hinting at bodily participation without demanding it, while remaining a precise formal object in its own right. Echoes of physiotherapeutic practice, such as mirror therapy, where the image of a healthy limb helps repair a damaged one, reverberate through the work. She asks whether, in the face of emotional paralysis, we might similarly perform gestures of belief until they take root. There is a lightness in this premise, a tone that edges toward the childlike without ever becoming naïve. The sincerity is deliberate and exacting. In a cultural moment dominated by irony and fatigue, Field of Exercises proposes something disarmingly subversive: a space in which to practice feeling. Not because feeling is easy, but because it has become difficult, and urgently necessary.
The installation is also shaped by sound. A continuous composition by Kārlis Tone shares the space with the sculptural works, blending acoustic and electronic textures – tender and inclusive, strong yet kind. Influences range from the romantic motifs of Sibelius and Wagner to the energising pulse of gym music and the meditative atmospheres of online mindfulness channels. The soundscape is not backdrop but atmosphere, enveloping visitors in a field where movement, image, and sound converge in rehearsal.
Text by Edd Schouten
Installation view of Field of Exercises. Dimensions variable. 3D printed resin, watercolor, alcohol ink marker, steel, digital print, mirror film. TUR, Riga, Latvia, 2025
Installation view of Field of Exercises. Dimensions variable. 3D printed resin, watercolor, alcohol ink marker, steel, digital print, mirror film. TUR, Riga, Latvia, 2025
Power Pose. 3D printed resin, watercolor, alcohol ink marker. TUR, Riga, Latvia, 2025
Power Pose. Detail view. 3D printed resin, watercolor, alcohol ink marker. TUR, Riga, Latvia, 2025
Power Pose. Detail view. 3D printed resin, watercolor, alcohol ink marker. TUR, Riga, Latvia, 2025
Installation view of Field of Exercises. Dimensions variable. 3D printed resin, watercolor, alcohol ink marker, steel, digital print, mirror film. TUR, Riga, Latvia, 2025