8.04.–26.04.2011
HOP gallery
Hobusepea 2, Tallinn

„Japan – a country on the other side of the earth, I had considered and feared going to for a longtime. In October 2010 the trip finally took place. Being there influenced me too much to keep it all to myself. Emotions formed into a book and an exhibition.

Silence. Absolutely strange language switches me off from the information overflow that usually hits us in the city commotion. A sign or a poster becomes an abstract work of art. Going into nature does not require translation and feels safer.

Sensing the timeless circle of nature creates a state of mind which could be described as contentment and conciliation.

Tiny, lifeless, white butterfly at the stone stairway of a for some reason closed shinto shrine instantly becomes a symbol for me – a beginning and an end which turns into a new beginning.

Peace, tranquillity … for a moment … „

This is how Mare Saare, a glass artist and professor at the department of glass of the Estonian Academy of Arts describes her personal exhibition at the HOP gallery. With the exhibition „Japan“ the artist has tried to record memories and moments in glass and on photos. Light dictates the beauty of the game. The goal is to store the process – the transformation of an actually existing into a memory, recording and remembering lost images, variability anbd generalization over time.

Following the three-line structure, common to haiku, the author has begun her creative process with photos showing an actual situation which have been included on a book. Then she has printed and fired the images on glass plates which in turn are scanned or photographed in different lighting and reached back into photos printed on paper. The exhibition presents the whole journey.

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

The book „Travelogue: Japan“ is available www.blurb.com

Additional information:
Maria Valdma
HOP gallery
Hobusepea 2
10133 Tallinn
+372 6462887
+372 5112350
e-mail: hop [at] eaa [dot] ee
www.eaa.ee/hop