Zane Tuča's Pār-gājiens exhibition invites slow looking

A solo exhibition by artist Zane Tuča, titled Pār-gājiens, runs until 20 November at the Alma gallery in Riga and features four of her most recent paintings. Two earlier works by her were also on display throughout the autumn in the exhibition Iemiesotā doma at the Latvian National Museum of Art. A review in the newspaper Diena presents the show as an example of art that encourages slow looking, a theme of growing relevance as interest in art therapy and the "slow art" movement increases.

Method and technique

Tuča works consistently in one technique, which she has developed since her student years in the early 2000s. She applies a thin monochrome layer of acrylic paint to canvas and draws over it with fine graphite lines, creating an indistinct landscape fragment. Figures emerge from the grey graphite network if the viewer looks closely. The artist has said she deliberately seeks out motifs in nature and then spends months turning each one into an artwork. The latest exhibition emphasises the importance of walks and hikes in nature.

Slow art

The review cites the view of philosopher Arden Reed, set out in his book Slow Art (2017): if one looks at a work for a long time, a static image becomes an event and resembles a slowed-down film. The roots of the "slow living" movement are traced to Italy in the 1980s, when Carlo Petrini and like-minded people used a "slow food" campaign to resist fast-food culture. The review notes that a viewer typically spends only fifteen to thirty seconds with an artwork, which is why museums in Latvia also hold workshops where participants "talk" with a work for five to ten minutes.

The review also states that tree branches give people a sense of security, and it cites environmental scientist Jules Pretty's calculation that humans lived close to nature for 350,000 generations but have lived in big cities for only about six.