Estonishing !

Kunstniku Nimi

13 from Estonia

Kunstniku Nimi

ESTONISHING !

Exhibition of 13 Estonian jewellers Thomas Cohn Gallery 24.02–01.03.2016 (FRAME, Internationale Handwerksmesse) Munich, Germany 26.05–30.06.2016 São Paulo, Brazil Curators Thomas Cohn, Tanel Veenre Concept ESTONISHING ! artists

CATALOGUE Texts Thomas Cohn, Kadri Mälk, Tanel Veenre Translation Adam Cullen, Mati Sirkel (poem by Juhan Viiding) Design Asko Künnap, Julia Maria Künnap (binding) Photos Jaan Heinmaa, Julia Maria Künnap, Maarja Niinemägi, Tiit Rammul, Tanel Veenre, Tiina Niinemägi, Jun Ishikura, Katrin Kosenkranius (cover), Lui Ruut Plink (inside cover) & artists

Supported by Galeria Thomas Cohn, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Susan Cummins, Helena Pahlman, Mart Kalm, Law Office Ehasoo & Partners, Emil Urbel, Foundation Young Estonian Jewellery Gratitude Sofia Björkman, Ulvi Haagensen, Dénes Farkas, Helve Hennoste, Elo and Riina Viiding, Cultural Attaché of Estonian Embassy in Berlin Harry Liivrand Galeria Thomas Cohn Rua Joaquim Antunes 187, São Paulo Tel (55 11) 3167-5001, (55 11) 98877-2532 www.galeriathomascohn.com.br thomcohn@gmail.com Print Printon AS Publisher © ESTONISHING ! tanel.veenre@gmail.com Tallinn 2016 ISBN 978-9949-38-881-3

13 from Estonia

THE COLOUR OF DARKNESS

No more mountains, no more sea.

No woods, no trees. No flowers, no fruits.

No red lips, no green leaves, blue skies, shining gold.

Far from tropics, long nights and short days, Moon reigns over Sun, snow hides the trees, wood and bones, metal and stones become the structure of people’s identities.

Estonian jewellery has essence prevailing on surface, soul on flesh.

The colour of darkness looms in the inner landscape, deep in the mind.

Thomas Cohn gallerist Brazil

The first letters sent from a Brazilian gallerist named Thomas Cohn to Estonian jewellery artists arrived in the late summer of 2013. The From the Coolest Corner exhibition catalogue stoked intense interest in the visions and ideas of jewellery art prevalent at the far end of the world.

Mildly worried – Should he prepare for snow, too?

– we arranged a two-day artists’ studio visitation programme for the 3rd and 4th of November of that same year. The bridge had been built.

Early November was chilly in Estonia. And his passion for the jewellery was genuine. It is a kindred spirit, friendship through creative works that has brought this selection of Estonian jewellery artists together into an exhibition and a book, which would not have been possible without the enthusiasm and support of Thomas Cohn.

Viewed from a distance, what might be the common thread that runs through these artists?

Is there some other kind of a language apart from Estonian that we all speak? We are all alumni of the Estonian Academy of Arts Department of Jewellery and Blacksmithing, and all (with one exception) former students of Kadri Mälk.

What stems from the school, what from blood, and what from soil – who knows for certain? Yet, Estonian jewellery understands the language of idealism – that’s a definite. Estonia is just the right kind of place: peripheral enough to be free of popular trend’s clear orientation, and close enough to keep an eye on the game. We perch here like a little bird on a branch.

I’ve heard people speak of a certain spiritual endeavour; an urge to peer beyond physical reality. An opaque ancient quality, which nevertheless isn’t afraid to be breakawaybeautiful. An ability to strain out the noise and the excess, leaving a clear surface. The proximity of nature, the sensitivity of fingerprint, the masterfulness of ambiguity. It’s possible.

Your own ears stay out of sight, and even so – you can’t escape them, either.

Tanel Veenre jeweller Estonia

13 jewellers 13 worlds in jewellery 13 Estonian words that open personal worlds

EHE [´ehe] Ornament, adornment; solid, pure, genuine. Estonian is probably the only language in the world where a single word - ehe - means both

jewellery and sincerity.

Sofia Hallik

Nils Hint

Piret Hirv

Julia Maria Künnap

Kristiina Laurits

Eve Margus-Villems

Kadri Mälk

Maarja Niinemägi

Villu Plink

Darja Popolitova

Ketli Tiitsar

Maria Valdma

Tanel Veenre

Sofia Hallik

TAJU * [t´aju]

The quality of being able to appreciate and respond to complex emotional or aesthetic influences.

A theory of sensation, perception, and understanding; or a theory of creation and appreciation of beauty.

*sense, perception

Sofia Hallik

Sofia Hallik

HOMEOSIS_V neckpiece marble, polyurethane plastic, silver, rubber cord 130 x 37 x 37 mm 2015

Sofia Hallik

Nils Hint

ÖÖSORR [´ø:+s´orr] A word with dual definitions: a bird known as the European nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus) and an activity – going to pee at night.

The nightjar sleeps in the daytime and sings at night.

Man sings in the daytime and sleeps at night.

Two sorri may encounter one another when you go outside to take a leak on a summer night.

Nils Hint

Nils Hint

MEHINE I [m´ehine] MANFUL I brooch forged iron 140 x 100 x 50 mm 2015

Nils Hint

Piret Hirv

MAA*ILM ** [m´a:] [´ilm] A word-pair that joins us into a single whole of the surrounding horizontal and vertical bounds, tactile and impalpable. That joins us into the world.

Maa is the planet Earth – soil, land, solid ground.

It is a trustworthy surface that feeds, in the loins of which lies strength, and upon which one can lean. One gets a sense for range and distances by measuring ground. Only a yearning for far-away lands is unmeasurable.

Ilm is the measure of breadth. It signifies both the known and the unknown, the near and the far, the visible and the invisible. Both *maa - Earth, ground, distance, country, land **ilm - weather, state of atmosphere, world, earth + humankind, much, many, oftentimes ***maailm - universe, globe, world, surroundings, society, very large, spiritual space

worldliness and otherworldliness. Ilm is an expression of the unmeasurable and the transient, the changing and the fleeting.

It is the opposite of Earth and everything earthly.

Everything human should fit precisely between the two.

Piret Hirv

Piret Hirv

ÜKS KÕRS [´yks k´ərs] ONE STRAW brooch silver 120 x 70 x 10 mm 2015

Piret Hirv

Julia Maria Künnap

UDU * [´udu]

Just read me from front or behind, I’ll still rise from field and from forest, a web I will weave to your eyes deceive and my trickery’ll take all before us.

Thick I may be when I settle, spurring hopes to clear hay from the nettle, but when I do rise up higher towards skies

*fog, mist **Estonian riddle in verse, collected by folklorist Fr. R. Kreutzwald in 1865

’twill be to bring rain to the kettle.**

Julia Maria KĂźnnap

Julia Maria Künnap

EMA JA TÜTAR I [´ema ja t´ytar] MOTHER AND DAUGHTER I brooch obsidian, gold 57 x 36 x 10 mm 2015

EMA JA TÜTAR II [´ema ja t´ytar] MOTHER AND DAUGHTER II brooch obsidian, gold 53 x 38 x 10 mm 2015

Julia Maria KĂźnnap

Kristiina Laurits

HALL* [h´allj] It is a hue that ranges from white to black or is frozen dew on morning grass or a large auditorium in a stately building or substantia grisea i.e. grey matter.

Hall can also be bleak Estonian weather, a boring day, or simply pointless existence. *grey, frost, hall, characterless, mousy

Kristiina Laurits

Kristiina Laurits

PUNAVERELINE [p´una+v´ereline] RED-BLOODED neckpiece coloured curly birch, eggshell, enamel, silver, corals 300 x 300 x 7 mm 2015

Kristiina Laurits

Eve Margus-Villems

HERMES ring gabbro, white gold 100 x 19 x 5 mm 2015

HERA ring marble, oxidized silver 85 x 18 x 6 mm 2015

Eve Margus-Villems Kunstniku Nimi

Eve Margus-Villems

NÜRI* [n´yri]

Eve Margus-Villems

Southern Estonian nĂźhr.

Both a mind and a blade can be nĂźri. *blunt, bootless, dull, obtuse, torpid

Kadri Mälk

Kadri Mälk

Tume is a shade of darkness – not quite black, but almost. Psychologically, metaphorically: black dog, twilight, in-between, suspicious, dusk, dim, gloomy. Dark matters.

TUME* [t´ume] *dark

Won’t ever stop, I am unclottable and flowing down – so hot and dark.

Confessing time for every sin’s predictable.

This winter’s snow I do now mark, its colour I can’t bear: this is too dark.

Juhan Viiding

Kadri Mälk

Kadri Mälk

DUENDE 1 brooch painted cibatool, silver, pleonast 89 x 75 x 17 mm 2015

DUENDE 2 brooch painted cibatool, silver, gold, aquamarines 56 x 75 x 17 mm 2015

Maarja Niinemägi

Maarja Niinemägi

PARV * [p´arv] A parv as a float. A parv as a group, a herd, a pack. Certain species of birds, insects, and fish live parvedes (in flocks). A parv is communality, the existence which does not function alone.

Just as how singular thoughts form a whole in relation to one another, so do they gather into a parv, allowing themselves to go with the flow in the necessary direction.

*covey, flock, swarm, bevy, raft

Maarja Niinemägi

Maarja Niinemägi

ÖÖPARVED [´ø:+p´arved] NIGHT FLOATS brooch milky opal, buffalo horn, mother of pearl, silver, gold 160 x 150 x 40 mm 2013

Villu Plink

Villu Plink

UMBLUU * [umbl´u:] A statement that is unclear or dubious. *mumbo-jumbo

It’s Greek to me.

Villu Plink

Villu Plink

J. T. brooch painted iron, plastic, steel 270 x 45 x 25 mm 2015

Darja Popolitova

Darja Popolitova

MÄGI * [m´ægi] *mountain, hill

Estonia is a flat country.

Even so, most uplands and settlements have carried the word mägi in their names since ancient times. Take for example Sillamägi, Pirogovi mägi, or Emumägi.

Darja Popolitova

Darja Popolitova

METANOIA XIII brooch stabilized wood, resin, silver, steel 115 x 40 x 25 mm 2015

METANOIA XIV brooch stabilized wood, resin, silver, steel 120 x 35 x 25 mm 2015

Ketli Tiitsar

Ketli Tiitsar

So ordinary and important.

Many trees make a forest.

There’s a nice saying: “You need to see the forest for the trees.” Meaning

PUU * [p´u:]

you need to be able

to capture what’s important

behind the superficial.

*tree, wood, timber

Ketli Tiitsar

Ketli Tiitsar

TEINE OLEMUS VI TEINE OLEMUS V

[t´eine ´olemus]

[t´eine ´olemus] SECOND NATURE VI SECOND NATURE V

brooch

brooch

ash wood, silver, pigment

ash wood, silver, pigment

132 x 29 x 27 mm

156 x 57 x 14 mm

2016

2016

Maria Valdma

Maria Valdma

ÄRA* [´æra] go away don’t go away don’t do it don’t say that don’t cry figure it out don’t laugh hear me out out of place buy it up Judas gave Jesus up out and away

*do not, don’t, off, out, away

Maria Valdma

Maria Valdma

TERRITOORIUMID [t´errit´o:riumid] TERRITORIES brooch oak, gold, silver 90 x 190 x 40 mm 2016

Tanel Veenre

Tanel Veenre

ÖÖTÖÖ * [´ø:+t´ø:]

Time is still.

Hands, materials, and heartbeats.

Music.

Dissolving into

öö (night) and *night work

töö (work).

Tanel Veenre

Tanel Veenre

VÕLUFLÖÖT III [v´əlu+fl´ø:t] MAGIC FLUTE III neckpiece wood, reconstructed lazurite, silver 250 x 170 x 20 mm 2016

The Artists

Kadri Mälk kadrimaelk@gmail.com

Ketli Tiitsar ketli@etdm.ee

Maria Valdma mariavaldma@gmail.com

Piret Hirv piret.hirv@artun.ee

Kristiina Laurits kristiina.laurits@gmail.com

Eve Margus-Villems eve.margus-villems@artun.ee

Tanel Veenre tanel.veenre@gmail.com

Julia Maria Künnap juliamaria@kynnap.ee

Villu Plink plink@live.com

Maarja Niinemägi maarjale@gmail.com

Nils Hint nils.hint@artun.ee

Darja Popolitova darja.popolitova@artun.ee

Sofia Hallik sofja.hallik@artun.ee

Years the artists studied at the Estonian Academy of Arts Department of Jewellery and Blacksmithing

1981 – 1986

1991 – 1999

1991 – 2000

1993 – 2002

1993 – 2003

1993 – 2002

1995 – 2005

1997 – 2004

1997 – 2006

1999 – 2008

2006 – 2013

2008 – 2015

2010 –

According to an Estonian proverb: you need to fertilize the cabbage that is growing.

Where do children come from? Where do Urmas Lüüs SÜGISBALL / AUTUMN BALL brooch 2016 recycled enamelled pot, stainless steel 70 x 65 x 60 mm

FOUNDATION YOUNG ESTONIAN JEWELLERY

works of art come from? Where else but from under healthy, vigorous cabbage leaves. Or from the sky? Or – from love?

In 2008 I perceived it was time. So many talented jewellers in the emerging Estonian jewellery scene and such miserable conditions for their growth.

I made a decision. It was time to do something. Founded a grant. As well as providing support during that particular

*The charitable foundation NOOR EHE / YOUNG ESTONIAN JEWELLERY was founded with the aim of supporting the work of new, outstanding talented young jewellers in Estonia. The grant is given either as recognition for excellence in creative work or to help support professional development.

Recipients of Foundation 2009-2015: Ettel Poobus, Nils Hint, Urmas Lüüs, Sofia Hallik, Darja Popolitova.

The board of Foundation Young Estonian Jewellery: Kadri Mälk (founder), Tanel Veenre, Piret Hirv, Tamara Luuk

www.nef.ee

time, its aim was to provide a timeless aspect, which focused on the future.

A large number of benevolent, generous friends and kindred spirits responded to the appeal, trusted me and the seed was sown – and not a small one. Tanel and his friends joined the cause. Then overseas supporters. And our own local Estonians support us as well. And this is a miracle.

Where jewellery and relationships meet, there is hope.

Kadri Mälk (Excerpt from the Non-explanatory Dictionary of Estonian Jewellery)

Kunstniku Nimi

Kunstniku Nimi

*

*