KATALOOG - Tõnis Saadoja & Maarit Murka, Nimetu, 2001, õli/lõuend, 4 × 95 × 140. – Koost Anders Härm, Hanno Soans, Uus laine: 21. sajandi Eesti kunstnikud. Tallinn: Tallinna Kunstihoone Fond SA, 2008, nr 1

Tõnis Saadoja ja Maarit Murka maaliseeria “Nimeta” kujutab endast ühe vaikelulise väikekodanliku motiivi rutiinset kordust neljal maalil. Kunstnikud pildistasid lähtemotiivi, ilmutasid selle nii positiivis kui ka peegelpildis. Kumbki võttis ühe fotodest ja maalis selle üks-ühele maha, nagu kunstnikud ütlevad - nii hästi kui sellel hetkel oskasid. Seejärel loobusid nad fotodest, vahetasid omavahel maalid ja tegid siis juba teineteise maalide järgi järgmise eksemplari, koos kõigi teise poolt tehtud vigadega. Motiivivalik neil iseeennast tõsimeelselt ülima realiteedina kordavatel klantspiltidel, mis iroonilisel moel sobiks ka kuhugi kinnisvarabüroo seintele rõhutab eesti tekkinud keskklassi väärtushinnanguile vastavat ihaldusväärset tüüpprojektiga eramaja, pseudoideaali, milleni jõudmisel elu justkui oleks valmis, yuppied kodustatud, pere loodud—andunud pildikorduses üksnes aimdub laenukoormusega kaasnevaid pingeid, edukohustust, eluredelil ülesse rühkimisega kaasnevat neurootilist kohustust “to keep up with the Jonesis“ – meeleheitel koduperenaiste pseudodramaatikat imbumas iga tapi vahelt.

The painting series “Untitled” by Tõnis Saadoja and Maarit Murka depicts a routine repetition of a stereotypical motive from Estonian upper middle-class life. The artists photographed the initial motive and developed the picture in positive and in mirror image. Both took one of the pictures and painted it one-to-one – as well as they were able to at the given moment. Next they gave up photos, swapped paintings with each other and made another pair of pictures already based of paintings, together with the minuscule mistakes made by the other. Fetishising an image, which in another context, embellishing the wall of a real estate company would, merely be an icon of what is considered to be a success. In the devoted repetitiveness and in the competition for an absolute look-alike set in the making of these paintings and in the process of arduously following the reality cloning itself in numerous real estate developing projects around Tallinn, we can find but a slight hint of finality. The yuppie has been domesticated, the loan graphic set for the rest of ones life and the neurotic obligation to keep up with the Joneses promises some behind the façade dramatics in the style of desperate housewives. The fresh fulfilment of an ancient ideal of one's own home meets the mechanical reproduction of its maiking. A discreet hint to the allmost mechanical replication of certain way of living, reminding us historically of ever spreading and ever failing Louisville, might settle in a slightly ghastly undertone to its otherwise faultless icon of neoliberal success model.