The creative collaboration of the two artists is just like the simultaneous movement of two tectonic plates or land masses. At the same time unnoticeable and powerful. Guided by different experiences and perceptions. Instead of the miniature forms expected of jewellery artists, the scales are larger this time. 

The bigger picture is created by an installation that divides the room horizontally. A feeling of vastness is created by slightly sloping surfaces, with images projected onto them opening up a view on a unique fragment of landscape. According to the artists, a whole world lies between earth and sky, a world in which things and events that we perceive become possible.

Between the two drifting masses, there is a transition space separating the upper and the lower world, the two poles, moments or angles of the view, latitudes, parallel lines, or random variables. Rising and falling can occur anywhere at the same time, and temporal change can translate into spacial change in the long run, but the limits to the whole world we perceive – the range of visible light, habitability, knowledge, endurance, or understanding – are here. Exposure to it depends on the viewer and the point of view.

The horizon, the area between the two, is the exhibition’s focal point, where the gap between opposing forces creates a precondition for something new to be created. The fragments expressing the consequences seemingly hold the installation together, and at the same time break it apart. Works in the area in between are fragments of more or less controlled processes that have had different effects on different materials.

The common history of Piret Hirv (1969) and Eve Margus (1972) is long. In 1993–1997, they were in the same course in the Department of Jewellery and Blacksmithing at Tallinn Art University, where they also continued their master’s studies together. Already during their studies, they both started working in the department headed by Professor Kadri Mälk. Today, both have become the principal mentors for a new generation of jewellery artists. Under their guidance, extensive and in-depth professional training takes place, with a strong emphasis on preparing students for independent exhibition activities. Both artists belong to the nationally and internationally recognised jewellery artist group Castle in the Air (õhuLoss), which also includes Kadri Mälk, Tanel Veenre, Kristiina Laurits and Villu Plink. They have been participating in exhibitions since 1996, and since 1999 mostly with Castle in the Air. Together, they have organised exhibitions in galleries, museums and alternative spaces, and published a number of captivating publications. Both of them are members of the Estonian Artists’ Association. Their subtle sense for material has been noticed by the Estonian museum scene, where they are consultants and skilled installers of appreciated exhibitions of all kinds of objects. They share a studio, and have held duo exhibitions (most recently in 2014 at Hop Gallery) and created small series and commission works together. Their works are held in the collection of the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design and in collections in Switzerland, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

The focus of Piret Hirv’s work is defining the boundary between presence and absence in both the personal and public space. Through the fine embossing of paper-thin silver, the perceived points of contact, touches, views experienced, distance and proximity are sketched into sensitive drawings that force the viewer to sharpen all of their senses to see and discover.

In her work, Eve Margus deals with the almost invisible boundary between the integrity of material and its complete dispersion. Motifs from nature, fragments from the past and experience have been turned into delicate matter made of fragile stones, bone and horn, which is supported by a structure skilfully reduced in the extreme.

The curator of the exhibition is jewellery and visual artist Villu Plink (1977), who has compiled and designed several exhibitions, and belongs to the group Castle in the Air Estonian Artists’ Association. 

Artists: Piret Hirv & Eve Margus
Curator, exhibition designer, videographer: Villu Plink
Texts: Piret Hirv & Eve Margus (Drift, Fragments); Ketli Tiitsar (Biographies)
Graphic design: Kersti Heile
Language editor: Hille Saluäär
Translation: Refiner Translations
Exhibition team at ETDM: Ketli Tiitsar, Toomas Übner
Exhibition is supported by: Cultural Endowment of Estonia
Thanks: Villu Mustkivi, Taavi Teevet, Urmas Lüüs