On 5 November at 5.00 pm, the exhibition ‘Holy Darkroom’ will open at the HOP Gallery. Jewellery artist Kristiina Laurits will present her work from the past year to the public. The exhibition will feature both jewellery and art objects.
The materials used by Kristiina Laurits have always been unusual, unexpected and thought-provoking, and this is no exception. In the jewellery installation being created at the Hop Gallery, the artist leaves culture behind and, quite literally, buries herself beneath a tree root. Her jewellery – formed from a mixture of earth – kisses and golden fingerprints hover at the edge of the earth’s surface, sometimes revealing themselves, sometimes concealing themselves. Nature has reclaimed what is hers – the earth is genuine and the darkroom is sacred, and nothing else matters at all.
A joint guided tour of the Artists’ Union galleries exhibitions will take place on 19 November at 5.00 pm.
The exhibition has been designed by film production designer Katrin Sipelgas.
The exhibition is supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment. Exhibitions at the Hop Gallery are supported by the Estonian Ministry of Culture, the Estonian Cultural Endowment and Liviko AS.
Kristiina Laurits studied at the Department of Jewellery and Metalwork at the Estonian Academy of Arts (BA 1997, MA 2003). In 2000, she undertook further studies at the jewellery department of Escola Massana in Barcelona, and in 2023 at the University of Tartu, completing the micro-degree programme ‘Museums and Future Heritage’.
Since 1995, Laurits has taken part in numerous jewellery exhibitions across Europe, China and the United States. Her works are held in public collections at the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design, the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, and in many private collections around the world. In 2017, Laurits published a book on her own work entitled ‘THE HAPPY FEW. Jewellery and Objects’. Since 1999, she has been a member of the jewellery art collective ‘õhuLoss’, whose exhibition ‘Goodbye, Gravity’ in the attic of the University of Tartu Museum won the 2024 annual award from the Estonian Cultural Endowment’s Fund for Fine and Applied Arts. Laurits currently works as a freelance artist in Tallinn.