Elize Hiiop’s solo exhibition SENSORY SPACES explores the relationship of external and internal spaces. The jewellery series depicts real places and objects that have acquired symbolic significance for the artist over time. Familiar architectural elements are presented in altered sizes, and through the harmony of their repetitions and overlaps, new miniature worlds have emerged.
Several spaces that inspired the works now exist only in the artist’s memories. Emotions, scents, sounds, and light evoke vague and romanticized sceneries. There are places or objects that became valuable through human touch – a grandmother waiting on the steps in front of the house, who has now passed away; a daughter practicing piano in the mornings, who has started an independent life; or the snow castles built with her father in childhood, which disappeared with the first thaw. There are also places that have inscribed themselves deeply in her soul over the years, like the home in Kalamaja or the studio in the old town, and some that persist as flashes before her eyes through bright realization or experience.
The exhibition gathers location-based memories into a tangible form, creating a time capsule that can be revisited now at any chosen moment. The jewellery pieces took form as brooches, allowing the cherished places to be carried with oneself. A piece of jewelry worn close to the heart is like a bridge that maintains a strong connection between the inner and outer worlds. The dominant material used is porcelain, accompanied by ebony, silver, bone, coral, and cotton paper.
Elize Hiiop (1977) is an Estonian jewellery artist and designer who graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts with a degree in jewellery and blacksmithing in 2005. She has participated in numerous exhibitions in Europe, China, Mexico, and the United States, and her works are in various private collections. Hiiop is dedicated to exploring the possibilities of porcelain as a material, focusing on 3D printing with organic additives in recent years.
Thanks: A-Galerii, Estonian Cultural Endowment, Estonian Academy of Arts, Lovisa Luka Hiiop, Lauri Kilusk, Meriti Ilves, and everyone who supported with kind words or deeds.
