My late grandmother spent her life reading cells for signs of illness. I found her old, hand-cut cytology slides and, unexpectedly, several carrying my own name, aged 9. Seeing my cells in her archive was startling and intimate. I grew up looking through glass beside her; now, as an artist, I find that same microscopic world resurfacing in my paintings.
Through My Glass began with a box of cytology slides I found among my late grandmother’s belongings in Tallinn. Metta was a cytologist, and as a child I often spent time with her in the laboratory. She showed me how to use a microscope, how cells could reveal signs of health and illness, and, more importantly, how much wonder could be discovered by looking closely.
Years later, that way of seeing resurfaced in my art. I repeatedly return to cells and branching structures in my paintings - visual references rooted in the microscopic world my grandmother first showed me in her lab. Health, for me, is not only a medical subject, it is a visual and emotional landscape.
After my grandmother passed away, I found her glass slides: irregularly cut by hand, stained blue, violet and magenta, wrapped in paper and marked with handwritten notes, dates, names and fingerprints. Among them, to my shock, were three slides bearing my own name, aged nine, as well as two bearing hers.
In the final image, the three slides containing my own childhood samples are placed directly across my painting, surrounded by other slides from my grandmother’s working archive.
My grandmother used glass slides to look for signs of illness. I now use the same material to look for traces of her.
I did not inherit my grandmother’s profession. I inherited her curiosity.
London, United Kingdom / Tallinn, Estonia
In collaboration with Metta Pasok, my grandmother
In collaboration with Metta Pasok, my grandmother
How it was made?
The work began with my original acrylic painting Pulse of Protection (more on it here) which includes painted cellular and dendritic forms with copper-foil details. I photographed the painting and scanned a group of historical cytology glass slides. The painting was then printed, selected slides with my own childhood cell samples (three central slides) were physically overlaid onto it and the arrangement was scanned again. The slides on the left side have my grandmother's cells. These photographic and scanned elements were subsequently combined digitally to create the final image. All source imagery and artwork were created, photographed or scanned by me from the original physical materials. No generative AI was used.
