The graphical art of Kelli Valk Kagovere is two-directional, being simultaneously directed both towards the past and the present. In her work she uses signs and symbols, in which we can easily detect visual parallels with cave drawings, rune writings and family signs. Simple lines, which have been styled in a robust manner, do not try to reflect here the artist’s brilliant drawing skills, the line is not a tool in the artist’s hand, and it is an object of research. As we have often got used to seeing (and this applies exceptionally often in case of graphical art), how an artist acts like an artist – how he/ she gives the best in order to display in the works the mastered skills and overwhelming talent, then Valk Kagovere is a different type of creator. She could rather be compared with a detective.

What are it then, connecting the present exhibition and Pinker Albert? How to draw a sign of equation between the cunning moustache of Poirot and the work “Mahe tuul” (“Mild wind”)? Actually it can be done in quite a simple manner. Similarly to the detective, also Valk- Kagovere has placed herself into the role of a perceptive observer. This is proved by the format of her works. Here the artist has used close shots, examining at the same time a very small amount of evidence and analysing it extremely carefully. She does not use large format as Scotland Yard does, but this institution is simultaneously dealing with dozens of cases - Valk Kagovere only concentrates on the meaningful, leaving out the informational noise.

As the method, Valk- Kagovere does not seem to be using so much a deductive one, being based on logical explanations, but a method, which is trying to justify phenomena. If a thousand years old sign happens to end up among the evidence, then why is it there? Why was it once drawn, and why was it done in such a manner? What was the message of this sign? Notice:  Valk- Kagovere does not try to find the guilty person; she does not try to detect the footsteps of the person, having left the signs. This means that even though the artist uses ancient symbols, she never emphasizes in her works for instance the national origin. No, she is interested in the visual appearance of the sign and how it could be used nowadays. In this manner she could even be compared with a cheating detective – while getting an access to pieces of evidence, she nicks them in order to take them to use by herself.

With her subjects the artist seems to be looking for certain purity, the undamaged time of the innocence of notions and feelings. Love and home, associations with nature and poetic expressions continuously appear in the works by Valk Kagovere. These are the subjects, to which the artist has again and again returned during the modern times. This continuous returning seems to be saying that these phenomena are being missed – by artists themselves, but also by the whole society. Some artists have resigned to the fate and are hopeless, others are cynical and ironical, and the remaining ones have turned their heads away. Valk- Kagovere acts as a reminder. Nothing tells us that things can never be the same again, which they once were.
On the contrary. Completely on the contrary.