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A GIFT OF BLEEDING HEARTS

On Friday, 17 February at 18:00, Keiu Koppel will open the exhibition A GIFT OF BLEEDING HEARTS at the A-Galerii VAULT. The exhibition will stay open until 30 March.

Bleeding hearts or Dicentra spectabilis are farm flowers familiar to many from summers spent in the countryside at their grandmother’s house as a child. Supple, delicate, pink, lovely and with a name so dramatic that a more striking one would be hard to come up with. A row of small white or pink split hearts fluttering in the warm breeze. In Estonian the plant is known as the broken heart, another very direct reference to its teardrop shape that seems to be split in the middle. Bleeding hearts are fragile and at the same time strange and special, embodying exactly that human vulnerability and brokenness as well as a genuine beauty that is often kept only for oneself. It is a delicate flower within us that must be protected from the world.

Bleeding hearts. A certain meaningful intrigue could be perceived in this name even in childhood. Most likely a naive and cinematic idea of how intense certain strong feelings might be. Today’s concerns have become completely different and have redrawn former imaginings with shades that could not be found in a child’s palette.

Nowadays it is polite to be beautiful, happy and satisfied. However, there is another side, which we see rarely and briefly, when cracks finally fracture and compositions have permanently decomposed.

February has been the month of Valentine’s Day for our people for nearly 30 years. This western holiday of bubbling hearts and sweet chocolate sums up why our generation has been accurately described as the sad generation with happy faces. All this is present in Valentine’s Day today: the pressure to consume and celebrate, a prerequisite for a happy relationship and love. As a sharp contrast, all this is carried by the reality of lonely people and sad statistics.

Keiu Koppel is a jewellery artist who graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts, majoring in jewellery and blacksmithing, whose creations inspired by an admiration for nature combine detail, meaningful thoughts and a high level of goldsmithing. Keiu’s playful works have inspiring stories and details and with their spatiality and mobility, offer the wearer a kinetic jewellery experience. A GIFT OF BLEEDING HEARTS is Keiu Koppel’s third solo exhibition at A-Galerii VAULT.

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.