FUNGI

Meet my great great great grandfather, Karl August Hermann, a stern faced Estonian composer, linguist and, in this piece, unlikely psychedelic icon.

Asked to explore irony through imagery, I turned to the Estonian love of fungi (and perhaps the unspoken family tradition of looking like you have never once cracked a smile). In this portrait, I have reimagined Karl not as the serious patriarch preserved in sepia, but as a full blown fun guy, sprouting colour, pattern and personality where once there was only lace collars and distant eyes.

This is about transformation. Of image, of legacy, and of letting a little absurdity into the family album. If Karl ever took magic mushrooms, we will never know. But now, at least, he looks the part.