The exhibition “The Blue Calm of Being” opens at Uus Rada Gallery on 16 October at 18:00. Its starting points are the sculptures of artist Ülo Õun and Ave Palm’s nature photographs and videos.
The exhibition focuses on portraits from Õun’s sculptural oeuvre that have been described as grotesque, which the artist himself called emotionisms. Sculptures sourced from the collection of the Art Museum of Estonia, photographed in the collection of Tartu Art Museum and in the homes of Õun’s children, have been transformed through the central medium of Palm’s current artistic practice: cyanotype. Behind the sculptures, the images and video sequences are largely based on the movement of water, as well as other, more abstract natural phenomena.
The first compositions of the works by the two artists emerged through the fusion of a photograph of Õun’s sculpture The Pensive Man, located in the grounds of the Tuhala Witch’s Well, with Palm’s abstract nature photographs. Palm was immediately captivated by the sculpture’s symbolic character and the possibility of developing the idea further. Since the original photograph of Õun’s sculpture was taken amidst nature, evoking a luminous combination of spring awakening, flowing water and sunlight, Palm selected complementary images and videos from her own work that conveyed similar phenomena.
Over time, several additional layers have become part of the exhibition: ceramic works and sound compositions by Õun’s daughters Inguna and Laura; sound compositions by Kenn-Eerik Kannike; further developments of artist Baran Caginli’s edible sculptures; and the self-portrait drawing score by artists Andrea Zavala Folache and Adriano Wilfert Jensen. The latter two elements will become interactive parts of the exhibition, which visitors are welcome to engage with.
The aim of the exhibition project is not to present a comprehensive overview of Ülo Õun’s sculptural oeuvre, but rather to pay tribute to his creative and exploratory spirit. After documenting the moment when the Tuhala Witch’s Well began to boil in 2023, Palm began investigating the background of Õun’s artistic practice. It seemed to her that his artistic soul found its truest and most honest expression in the portraits he called emotionisms: strange, distorted, elongated, slender, undulating and bubbling forms. They reflect a sense of eternity, melancholy, longing and emotional depth. It seems only fitting that these works, along with many others by the artist, can still be experienced and encountered in some form today. Although not all the documented works necessarily belong to the category of emotionisms, each selection carries the particular sensibility the exhibition seeks to convey.
For Palm, the creation of exhibition projects begins with moments of recognition and phenomena that resonate deeply. The Blue Calm of Being is an ode to human individuality and the ability to endure and find one’s way through difficulties. It seeks to bring together several attempts to approach the deeper essence of the human being, inevitably embracing a certain measure of intuition and the ineffable — things that can only be sensed with the heart — while preserving a sense of playfulness.
Palm devoted particular attention to developing the project during her residency at KORDON in Hiiumaa in early 2025. During the residency, she produced one cyanotype each day, combining a photograph of a sculpture with imagery drawn from nature. She drew inspiration from walking outdoors and photographing and filming the flow of water and other natural phenomena.
The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
The exhibition will be open daily at Uus Rada Gallery from 17 to 25 October. Opening hours to be confirmed.