Kadriorg Palace

Firstly, Garage Sailor has been updated. So, if you're interested in that sort of thing, head on over and check out my finds from the Russian market.

Secondly, Today I went to Kadriorg which is a big estate built by Peter the Great as a summer palace for his 'consort' Catherine. The Palace is now the museum of foreign art and and the estate also houses the fantastic new contemporary art museum.

In the palace I was fascinated by a children's party hosted by medieval wenches teaching medieval dancing (strange for an 18th Century palace)...



...and by the beautiful stoves throughout the building.















That last, less elaborate stove was in the cottage where Peter lived while the palace was being built but I think I liked it the best.


The new contemporary art museum, as I said, is fantastic. It was designed by a Finish architect and is a really stunning building, inside and out. I really enjoyed being in the spaces. It's designed like an arc, actually the whole complex is designed as a circle but the building housing the galleries is shaped like a thin slither or arc of a disc. Have a look here for a better picture




I only managed to see 2 of the 4 floors of art before I had to concede to coming again another day. All the works are by Estonian artists and I particularly enjoyed the collection from the Modern period. I guess I was expecting lots of 'soviet' art but the paintings (only painting and sculpture - applied art and design has it's own museum in the old town) were very refreshing and extremely moving.

The most amazing gallery was a room full of busts...





It's right at the point of the arc of the building so the room narrows to a sharp angle. The busts are stacked up the wall which is two storeys high and also sit on tall plinths in the middle of the room. From some of the busts on the wall comes the sound of recorded indistinct chatter. It's as if they are all conversing amongst themselves. Some of them are enormous and some of them quite small. And high up on the wall is the bust of a seagull.

Portraiture and busts are particularly powerful in Estonia as it has been subjected to foreign rule for most of it's civilisation. The foreign rulers (be they tsars or generals) required that busts or portraits of themselves be displayed in every public building, as a reminder to the inhabitants as to where their loyalties should lie.

Anyway, I didn't want to leave the room, it really felt like all those people were there.

More another time...

I love mail

I know that this is a jewellery blog and you're probably not interested in my personal life but I have to post that I GOT MAIL!! And how good it is. Thank you to Brigette (could your airmail sticker have been any bigger and I love my Siamesemu), Hannah (I had so much trouble opening the double layer envelope, I still think I have missed a little pocket with a surprise Euro-treasure in it) and Katherine (my table is covered in glitter now too). I also got a note from the post office which is in Estonian so I can only assume I have a parcel waiting for me somewhere.

Also, I found this...




via Sienna Gallery which I thought might be of interest to my knitting friends which includes the aforementioned Brigette.

I love you all

.

foreign exercises

So I've finished my first week of teaching and I'm really impressed by some of the things that are already coming off their benches. I set them practical exercises in idea development this week and they're getting excited, as am I. Here's the group...



These are the four students working around the group table from left to right Katrin (from Estonia and the a is supposed to have 2 dots over it), Antje (from Idar-Oberstein, Germany), Xana (from Portugal) and Kertu (from Estonia)


This is Risto...



He is the all knowing most excellent technical guy for the studio. He is also studying for his masters in blacksmithing and I want to take him home.

This is Tonis (again funny things above the first vowel) he sits at the bench behind me.




And this is my bench at the end of week one.



cheers,

.

First day at the bench

I spent the morning wandering the streets of the old town looking for inspiration. I ended up shopping. of course.

I found a gallery that had a really nice collection of contemporary craft and I bought myself a beautiful woven scarf. A girl from Melbourne can never have too many scarves. I also checked out some souvenir shops and got a couple of things that will be turned into jewellery.

Here are some of the things I saw...



cobbles




more cobbles




a very cool door




a close up of the very cool door




another very cool door




this is the first example of this that I have seen. I was commenting to some people last night that I haven't seen any grafitti in Tallinn and I was told to go and check out some of the suburbs the soviets built!


And these are hysterical!





They are Matrushkas (sorry, Brigette can you correct me on the spelling?) and the Osama one says "Wanted! Live or dead" and Bill is carrying a copy of "monica's story"


I went to the academy in the afternoon to start settling in to a new bench. I'd forgotten how hard it is to work at a different bench. I wish I'd brought my bench peg with me! The bench is quite a bit lower than I'm used to and my stool is too high. There are a few shorter stools around which get shared, as does the one flexible drive for the whole studio. OH&S isn't as big an issue here as it is at home but I hear that the Academy will be moving to new purpose built premises in the near future so hopefully the new studios will be better equipped.

On the way home I dropped into the blacksmithing studio for a bit of a look around. Here are some pics...



That's Mart on the left, he is the blacksmithing lecturer












I also spent some time putting together my page for Klimt2. I've been accepted and paid my membership so the images should be up soon.

Cheers, Anna

Being Foreign

In researching my foreignness project I’ve found some amazing images, which I have to share with you. This…



From Medical Journal of Australia
Via Welsh View

in which her skin has grown over her wedding ring!

And the latest in surgical implants, a magnet



FromGizmodo


And we know that Peter Skubic is mad but this image is new for me



"Irritation" 1981 from Der Kosmos Des Peter Skubic published by Museum Fur Kunsthandwerk, Leipzig


I start my first day of teaching today but it will be a crit of their last project so that should be interesting. I’ll try and get images if they don’t mind.

It’s my 40th birthday

I'm here

Hello from Tallinn,
It's pretty cold here. No colder than a Melbourne winter, except that this is spring. I'm writing this from the jewellery workshop at the academy...




There is free wireless internet throughout the academy which makes up for no internet in my apartment! This is my bench...




a bit smaller that I am used to heh?

At the moment I'm preparing for my four week teaching block. I am going to run a project for the 3rd years on 'foreignness'. We'll be looking at the strange AND the familiar, and the foreign object and the body. I'll let you know how it progresses and post images of the student's work, if they don't mind. There are only 4 or 5 students in the class and 2 are not from Estonia. It will be fantastic having so few students so be able to really focus on them individually.

Here are some gratuitous photos of Tallinn street scenes...







The tourist cultural focus is on Tallinn's medieval history. It is one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe having escaped widespread bombing in the second world war. So far, I have only been exposed to the tourist end of the craft market but I'm looking forward to delving deeper.

Tourism and the kitsch souvenir are favourite subjects of mine. It's interesting to note the difference in souvenir subject matter between here and Australia. Here the focus is on ethnography and architectural history, while in Australia it is on landscape and biological difference (flora and fauna) Of course, the culture and customs of Australia's indigenous peoples are featured in souvenirs but the indication is of the other or the exotic.

Hmmm much fodder for contemplation.

More Schmuck

So, yesterday started with a trip to the Pinakothek Moderne where Helen Drutt gave a talk about her personal history with contemporary jewellery. It was similar to a talk I've heard her give before which must have been at the last JMGA conference in Melbourne. She showed mainly slides of American work from the 70's, 80's and 90's and talked about her experiences with jewellers from those times. It was a very personal talk and I would have been more interested to hear her views on the directions that contemporary jewellery is taking now.




The Pinakothek is AMAZING, it's an incredible building. I got a bit lost, mainly because of not being able to read German, but the spaces are fantastic including a large central atrium..




And... Half of the total collection is design! Including a whole gallery devoted to contemporary jewellery. If only Australian public collections were so enlightened. This is the entrance to the design area...





And here are some examples from the collection



apple computers!




a commodore!













this is part of the design hall and is a kind of vertical conveyer belt! showcasing items from the collection.

The jewellery gallery is in a more intimate space and is quite beautiful.




And the collection must be huge because not everything is on display at any given time and there were at least 200 pieces on show.

There was also a Gijs Bakker retrospective on which took up the whole of the top floor.




All of the old favourites were there, and many pieces I hadn't seen before including this...



bad photo, sorry. But it's from his laminated work and has gems set above the image. There was also a necklace made up of laminated penis's in various stages of erection which I'd never seen before. I wonder why? Perhaps if I'd had male teachers during my undergrad I might have been exposed to it!

After the Pinakothek I went to an open studio at Karl Fritsch's workshop. And then to an exhibition at Henrietta Schuster's workshop. She has this great little shop front with a small gallery space at the front and an even smaller workshop out the back. I was very jealous. I will do this one day!!!



the shop front






inside views of the gallery, you can see through to her workshop in the lower image




In looking out.



Henrietta

So, a good day. Today I did non jewellery sight-seeing and my next post will be from Tallinn!

cheers