Artist from Tartu, Estonia, Heikki Leis shares his statement for AVIVA drawings series

You can enter at any given point and go whichever way you please. The circle has no
beginning and no end, no direction either. Too much freedom causes confusion, so people
have come up with their own notion of time that goes “clockwise”, following the hands of
time, on a growing scale. Increasing numbers, mounting years. Tic toc.

Death is transformation, like birth. Big events set the clock to zero again. Have you ever felt you’ve experienced a moment before? Relax, it’s because you have. In fact. Before. Or was it after.
In order to learn something, our previous self has to painfully shed the skin of previous
failed experiences to give our future self some advice for the road. No need to reject or
deny the feeling that sometimes you just know. In advance. For certain. Stuff that hasn’t
happened yet. Your inner feeling is correct. It’s possible to go there as well.

AVIVA is a circle of life in all its forms. Aviva as a palindrome; a word that moves both ways. A viva, as “up from the dead” in Latin; up from the dead, towards life, in the opposite
direction. Despite its static nature, the circle of “Aviva” is not a still life, nature morte, dead nature. The seemingly silent pictures aspire towards life, to light. A moment freezes and time will become nothing but an arbitrary construction, shackles we don’t need any longer.

You can enter at any given point and go whichever way you please