To Pay an Arm and a Leg

“To pay an arm and a leg” – to pay an extremely high price – is a popular idiom in English; it is used in a wide variety of situations, and its origins are said to date back to the Second World War. It seems to equate apparently incompatible things like buying, selling and corporeal existence – because a high price can apply to many things. In the context of the exhibition title, the idiom asks questions about the value and experience of both art and life, including the cost of life choices. These themes are also important in Elīna Vītola’s other works, as captured, for instance, in the phrase “Common Issues in Painting and Everyday Life”, the title of her series of solo exhibitions, ongoing since 2017. In the current exhibition, she connects reflections not only on art and life but also on the past and the present, the personal and the collective, the known and the unspoken.