Liisa-Aleksandra Volmer

• "The Sistine Madonna"
• Tutor: Holger Loodus

My Bachelor’s Thesis is based on my stepfather’s biography and consists of two parts, which are paintings and textual material. Additionally, photos of my stepfather’s tattoos and a handmade amulette depicting human skulls is also presented at the exhibition. The main themes of the Thesis are life in Estonian prisons during the eighties and nineties along with a person’s change for the better. Eventually he moves on from his criminal past and starts a new life. The textual part of the Thesis was copleted before everything else — it came to be as my stepfather and I sat behind our kitchen table and I asked him to talk in detail about his past life while I wrote everything down. The paintings, on the other hand, show scenes from his current day-to-day life.
Life is not black and white and I wish more people would not judge ex-felons and instead be open to give them a second chance.