Category: Exhibitions

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A BETTER TOMORROW

Marita Lumi
Marita Lumi
Marita Lumi

A BETTER TOMORROW is a utopian reflection on keeping something delicate and fragile, on how to get out of danger quickly today, if at all possible. Would the solution be a spacecraft that can accommodate animals, among other things, because nature alone cannot slow down climate change in the current circumstances and we will soon have no place on earth? The summary of the 2018 World Climate Conference states that in less than a hundred years, more than 60 percent of species richness has already become extinct due to the rapid development of industry. Mass extinctions will occur in 50 to 500 years if politicians do nothing urgently. The world is like a pawn of different species and animals, some with a belly full of plastic, others with space oxygen bubbles in their heads, and crooked animals compressed into a single spaceship.
3D printing that is later galvanized (including embossed characters and iridescent gemstones).

Marita Lumi graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2015 with a master’s degree in jewelry. He studied in Strasbourg, France and at the Institute of Geology at TUT, and lived in Porto, Portugal for some time. Participated in many exhibitions, been a nominee of the Young Jewelry Award in 2016 and 2017 and the winner of this award in 2018, in addition a nominee of the Estonian Gold and Watch Association’s 2017 Estonian Jewelry of the Year competition and the winner of the 2017 A-Gallery jewelry competition.

Rait Siska, Paul Villemi, Danero Toomsalu, Alo Allar Altmets helped to organize the exhibition.

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MOONDED

Exhibition works are suggesting to questions about human, world and integrity. Transformation within growing and generating touches every stage and aspect of life. Different transformation outcomes coming from identity and allegory of roleplay are part of people everyday life.  Adaptation is always related to some kind of metamorphoses. Main materials used in works presented are cuttlefish bone hided into ink and acrylic. Cuttlefish, living in eastern part of Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea is also called ink fish. It is because during evolution it has adapted ability to protect itself with ink it erupts in case of threat. Ink then acquires the shape of cuttlefish which acts as bait and mudding waters when fading. It helps the cuttlefish to escape from threat.

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IN GOOD TIME

At her exhibition IN GOOD TIME the author presents jewellery and utensils created in Japanese metalworking procedure called mokumegane. The works made in this technique greatly differ from the usual high-gloss polished metal objects – the multicoloured surfaces of the mokumegane objects have an organic effect. Multilayered patterns draw our full attention while inviting us to follow the lines and tracks seen in the material.   Anni Kagovere has graduated from the department of jewellery art at the Estonian Academy of Arts and obtained a MA degree in Tokyo University of the Arts. In her work, Kagovere focuses on mokumegane technique. She has held mokumegane courses at the Estonian Academy of Arts and Viljandi Culture Academy.

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IHKA

IHKA is the co-project of Ihan Toomik and Kairin Koovit that includes a jewellery exhibition.
“How to use technical aspects while preserving one’s personal touch? How to exploit the beauty of industrial regularity without losing the artist’s individual style? How to ask a machine questions so that it can answer? Creating a piece of jewellery in a completely different language between a man and a machine.
All the exhibited pieces have been created by the help of 3D modeling software and 3D printing, forms have been created virtually. The jewellery pieces can be both enlarged and reduced according to one’s needs.”

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HERBARIUM

Wiebke Pandikow was born in Germany but studied jewellery design in Lahti, Finland and now lives and works as a jewelelry artist in Helsinki.

She has been working with plastic bags since 2014. Without the ubiquitous plastic, our civilization could hardly have become what it is today, but at the same time it is an immense burden on the environment. Especially plastic bags are an obvious symbol for mindless consumerism and a throw-away society. This makes them so interesting for Wiebke to work with: to create from them textures and structures that recall forms of a natural world that we have set ourselves apart from. With the help of a flat iron and a soldering iron, she creates, amongst others, lush necklaces of countless, hand formed, pale leaves made from the thin translucent plastic bags often found in grocery stores. The original feel and form of the bags vanishes and they become delicate jewelry, unrecognizable as what they once were. They are quite robust and are meant to be worn. What was living organisms thousands of years ago, then became oil, then became plastic, is now returned into forms that resemble living plants once more. While in our culture plastics are commonplace, invaluable yet insignificant, for Wiebke they bear the possibility of beauty.

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On Goddesses

“This work is a result from the study of my own emotional states during my time as a MA student and the following year. I used bread, an essential and universal ingredient that nurtures us and keeps all of us alive, as a base material to form objects, which capture my experiences of ‘being in the world’. All women have a goddess within them, but I see an universal struggle regarding their emotional and physical vulnerability. I dealt with difficulties, contradictions, two-sided feelings, irritations, growth and flowering. There is pressure to fulfill many expectations – a career, well-working relationships, successful family- life, perfect looks and independence – all at once. It feels that values like being analytical and competitive are dominant, overshadowing values like empathy, patience, intuition and introspection.

I kneaded and formed the material from the dough with my own hands. I used a slow method of working, starting everything with a touch that patiently grew to tell a story. The objects have a relation to the body – they can be touched, owned and worn. They are there to support the inner strength and beauty of any woman. These works are the exploration of my inner goddess.” Maria Kadarpik

Maria Kadarpik is a 26 year old Estonian jewellery artist who has graduated the jewellery department of the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2013 and master studies in Visual Arts and Jewellery Design with Christoph Zellweger in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp with honors in 2015. In 2014 she had an internship at the studio of Helena Lehtinen and Anna Rikkinen in Finland. Maria has also spent a semester studying Porcelain Design in Burg Halle, Germany. She has participated in multiple exhibitions in Estonia and abroad since 2010.

Some of the works here have been displayed in the Belgian contemporary jewellery gallery Beyond Fashion’s exhibition “Time Related”, which hosted 3 of the best Belgian jewellery graduates of 2015, including the works of Sangji Yun (KR) and Juan Harnie (BE). Some of the pieces have also been presented in the Marzee Annual International Graduation Show of 2015 in the Netherlands.

Sound and video design Ove-Kuth Kadak Graphic design Carl-Robert Kagge

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On preservation and conservation

Will my work be preserved by itself?

Dust, humidity, wood stove heating and unstable materials. I am, in fact, doing nothing in order to preserve my work. I have been in the role of a creator not a preserver. Either an attacker or a defender. When am I obliged to start preserving my work? Is it the moment I have completed the work or the moment it starts to fall apart? The next logical step would be placing the work into a box or exhibit in the museum. Is this an issue at all or just a possibility of various options?Is the value of my work based on my personal belief or someone else’s belief? Do you exhale on my work? If I ask you to open them with care, will you do it? My work is still close to me.At the current exhibition I am intrigued to understand my role and responsibilities as an artist whose work stays home after its completion. I am intrested in the best way to preserve my work. Will I become an archivist if I conserve it? What is the best place of conservation? Who will have the right to take out my work when I create a safe, an archive, or conserve the pieces in a room with the right temperature? What is the secure way? In case no one will ever see the work, will it acquire value during some time or will the presence of a viewer revalue the work? My work is exhibited with the same covers it had when touring around the Nordic jewellery exhibitions in Scandinavia. The purpose is to present the worthless material as a valuable one since the pieces express dignity from the start. Please take a look. Open it.   

Anna-Maria Saar obtained BA degree in the department of jewellery and blacksmithing at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2011. She has participated in group exhibitions in Estonia, Finland and Israel. In 2012, the artist was invited to take part in the Nordic jewellery exhibition “From the Coolest Corner. Nordic jewellery” that was touring around Scandinavia, Germany and Estonian in 2013-2015. Anna-Maria Saar’s first personal exhibition “Composed Sensibility” was opened in Amsterdam in 2014. She has also held special projects in Estonia and Western Europe; among the recent ones there was “Memory Card” (2016) – an interactive piece exhibited in the festival of Tartu urban space (UIT).  

Artist’s gratitude goes to the following people who have helped with the preparation process of the exhibition: Merike Alber, Mariann Habicht, Liis Vares, Mirjam Reili, Kertu Viira, Piret Karro.  

More information: Anna-Maria Saar www.annamariasaar.com

Press release by Piret Karro

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BERBERIS VULGARIS

Kätrin Beljaev, who was recently awarded the prize of “Noor Ehe”, opens personal exhibition which can be described as naturalistic, gracing and a bit outlandish and vulgar. Necklaces with classical mood and colorful temperament are exhibited. The visual concept is framed in classical style and festive winter colors. Jewelry is accompanied by short text inspired by the world of novels of Bulgakov, that gives the exhibition deliberately mysterious mood.

Crystals of frost were hanging from trees in featherlike shapes and bright red berries scattered in the snow looked like drops of blood. This blood red was the only color in the monochrome bright gray winter. Wild and prickly wild barberry bushes that had been planted along the wall in 1908 had by now grown high and made the ruins impassable. Margarita was nervous and while she was walking back and forth her black silk taffeta skirt tail got constantly stuck into the barbed branches. Beautiful and wild Margarita was waiting, she didn’t know yet which of them will come to meet her.  

The artist wishes to thank Kaarel Sikk, Veljo Seedre, Nikolas Mitsopoulos, Luise-Laura Vatsel, Lincona.   Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

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MINIMAL-COMPACT

This show is a shared exposure of Dot Melanin & Dana Seachuga.

While the two were studying together, they discovered the different worldviews they each pursue regarding the aspects of jewellery making. One shines a spotlight on the significance and value of the material itself, while illustrating a specific story using the components of the jewel. The other creates the possibility to dress the jewels with significance and values, while keeping the objects’ (hi)story open. However, it is intriguing to see that with similar archaic techniques, such as working with construction and layers, each expresses, in a tactile manner, his/her personal views.
Dot Melanin presents a series of works that were made after a creative experience in Estonia, 2013. The impact of the local artistic dialect is expressed in the work by the selection of colours, materials, forms and attitude.
Dana Seachuga presents a group of works from the past 3 years to the present. In her doings, she relates to the different roles we utilise jewels for, and the varied relationships the chosen role creates between a person and his/her personal object.
This collaboration in the intimate compact space at A-galerii results in a set-up that presents both artists in one assemblage, one atmosphere. It might provoke notions such as intervention, reflection and confrontation between the presented works and the surroundings.

In the Vault of A-Gallery 17.august 2018

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MIND + MAP

This exhibition is about minds and maps. We have thought about Tallinn and our relationship with the city, which is only around 80 kilometres from Helsinki. We have been to Tallinn many times, but now we are going to explore the city from jewellery artists’ point of view and find places that are peculiar to it. In addition, we will be hiding some jewellery on the streets of Tallinn. These hidden pieces will be tiny but visible and you will need a map or hints to find the places. The street pieces will lead you to A-Gallery.
 
Kaisa Vuorinen:
Work plays an important role in most people’s lives. If there is no work, there is no money.
Money, work and competition are themes in my jewellery. They are often on my mind. I made most of these works using the laborious and time consuming layer metal technique (mokume-gane). The patterns on the pieces come from sports medals found at flea markets. On the surface of the jewellery people work hard to win gold medals.
Coins represent small amounts of money. They can often be found on the streets, and if the value of a coin is very small, most people don’t even bother to pick it up. I have a bowl of coins at home, but I can’t use them to buy anything, because they are not in use anymore. They are made of combinations of metals, and it’s difficult to define their value. I use coins as a material for some of my jewellery. The coins have a new life and gain new value through my (handi)work.
 
Sanna Nuutinen:
First there’s a map; landmasses, water, coordinates. Then there are borders and walls. Walls are dividers, protectors or threats. Who built the wall, and why? Who has permission to go through it? There might be happiness on this side of the wall, while on the other side there’s something else. I have chosen words: contemporary rhetoric from the news. The words are passing comments on our present time: about movements, borders and politics. Turned into silver, there’s more time to think about the bigger picture behind the words. I have picked coordinates of different locations. Some of them are imaginary walls or borders, situated in the middle of seas and oceans. Others are concrete walls. Then there are walls/jewellery with holes in them. Where would you place a wall? Or is there a wall you would tear down?
 
Route:
We have placed tiny pieces of jewellery on the streets of Tallinn. The route starts from the harbour terminal and ends on Pikk Street, near A-Gallery. You can find the places by looking at the photos in the exhibition. It will be interesting to see how long the jewellery remains on the streets.