from top left: This wall shows us various periods in Latvian history in just a few square metres.The top and most recent layer was a rose patterned wallpaper. Next came Russian language newspaper, followed by Latvian newspaper in the old script not used today. The last layer revealed a beautiful art nouveau -style stencil. This was the only instance where I could put a face to a place. I can only assume that he is the boy who lived here. You work with what you can get.This kitchen was decorated with parts of food packaging.The text under the boy’s face says simply ‘juice’. from top right: More food packaging: cut-out plums.
The selection of vehicles in the USSR was limited, the most common mod- els being Lada, Moskvich,Volga and Zaparozec. American pop culture flowed freely to the former USSR in the 1990s. This apartment also had a Kurt Cobain quote, car stickers and pictures of Eminem and Backstreet Boys. opposite: The young boy living in this room seems to have outgrown the kitten wall- paper and gone the way of Emo, still very popular with Latvian youth. The foliage stencil is reflective of the golden years, the raucous 1910s and 20s when Riga could still compete with other European capitals and young artists had a special bond with Parisians. It was such a wonder to find under all that crap.
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