Mery Crystal Ra's artist talk at the exhibition 'Royal Visit to the Golden Waterfall'

Mery Crystal Ra's artist talk at the exhibition "Royal Visit to the Golden Waterfall" will take place on Thursday, August 13 at 5 pm at Tokko&Arrak Gallery, Teachers' House, Raekoja plats 14 on the topic "Mery Crystal Ra's global transformation of paintings into interdisciplinary, human kinetic sculptures and monumental objects".

The talk will be attended by art historian and artist Kaire Nurk, choreographer, dancer, poet and critic Sveta Grigorjeva, interdisciplinary artist and interior architect Tea Tammelaan and interdisciplinary painter, light-human kinetic sculptor and monumental artist Mery Crystal Ra. The artist talk is dedicated to painter Silvia Jõgever and art historian Reet Varblane.
 

Kaire Nurk is a (general) historian (1984) and painter (1995 BA cum laude, 2017 MA) with a background from the University of Tartu, and an MA in philosophy. She is also active as a practising artist and writer about art. As a painter, She is a conceptual minimalist, and as a writer, she is an interpreter of the work of her colleagues.

Sveta Grigorjeva is an Estonian choreographer, dancer, poet and critic. She has published three collections of poetry, "Who's Afraid of Sveta Grigorieva?"(2013), “American beauty” (2018) and “Frankenstein” (2023). Her productions include, for example, “FAKERZ” (2021), “Dances to sleep, dream and resist” (2022), which was awarded the best dance performance at the 2023 Theatre Awards. As an artist, she is interested in the Spinoza-like “we still don’t know what the body is capable of” reset and often in the potentially subversive nature and potential of the expressive body and text. Grigorjeva has danced in her own and others’ works in Estonia and abroad. In 2022, she received a second master’s degree from the Justus-Liebig University in Giessen, Germany, and in the fall of 2023, she began doctoral studies as a junior researcher at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre.

Tea Tammelaan is an interdisciplinary artist, designer and interior architect.
Tea Tammelaan graduated from the Estonian State Institute of Arts in 1988 with a degree in spatial and furniture design. She has worked at the Tallinn Urban Design Development Agency, the design agencies Laika, Belka & Strelka OÜ and Tore OÜ, and has also worked as a freelance artist. Tea Tammelaan’s work has stood out in exhibitions as diverse artistic objects. She has participated in the design of several exhibitions, such as the permanent exhibition of the Estonian National Museum (1994-2015), Tartu St. John's Church, Tartu Toy Museum, Estonian Road Museum, Ahhaa Science Centre, Kihnu Museum, Ilon Wikland's, etc. Tammelaan has received the EKL Kristjan Raud Annual Award in 1994; the ESL Annual Award for a solo exhibition and a set of chairs in 1993, the ESL Annual Awards for various museums and interiors together with Krista Lepland and Malle Jürgenson in 2004, 2005, 2007, 2010; the Estonian Museum Annual Award for the Museum Rat Ilon Wikland's permanent exhibition in 2014.

Artist Mery Crystal Ra is an internationally recognized innovator and pioneer of three-dimensional interdisciplinary light, glass, and video works. She has won numerous global competitions with her innovative, metamorphic works that have special fields of meaning created in special spaces.

She has been repeatedly selected to represent Estonia, Finland and the USA in international competitions at global exhibitions and conferences. Her innovative light-glass sculptures were over 40 years ahead of their time. She has also been invited to lecture to artists at the world-leading Rhode Island School Of Design RISD University in the United States, the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Sweden, the Estonian Academy of Arts and other universities. The artist's first exhibition of light sculptures took place in 1991, when Mery Crystal Ra presented her internationally sensational light exhibition in the first pavilion of the Estonian Exhibitions. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of this pioneering exhibition, an international hybrid conference with renowned speakers from the world's top artists was also held at KUMU in 2022. In 2016, Mery Crystal Ra was selected as a Nobel panellist for the UNESCO Year of Light closing ceremony in Mexico with an interactive solo exhibition, Light for Peace and the scientific conference of the same event, to give a presentation on her experimental light-glass-painting creations. The artist was elected European Ambassador of Light in 2014. She has won the European light competition Light in the City/Northern Light three times. The glass-light sculpture “Flying sheets of paper” created for the Finnish glass company Glaston won the audience award at the global competition of the world's leading public space/architectural art magazine US CODAworx. Mery Crystal Ra's exhibition “Parasite Beach” at the Estonian Mining Museum was selected as one of the five Cultural Works of the Year awarded in the Estonian Chamber Of Culture competition in 2016. 

The artist has been nominated for the Kristjan Raud Award several times. Her experimental paintings, glass, video and light works have been selected several times among the world's 25 best works in the US CODAworx magazine competition: the exhibition REACTIVE RIVER in the main building of the European Parliament, the sculpture FLYING SHEET OF PAPER in the main building of the Glaston company (Tampere, Finland), the work "Golden Gate meets Golden Gateway" in Mäetaguse, the interactive UNESCO International Year Of Light closing ceremony exhibition- global video sculpture "LIGHT FOR PEACE" collecting wishes for peace.

The exhibition opened to a large crowd on June 17, and the opening was also attended by the Mayor of Tallinn, Peeter Raudsepp, the diplomatic, scientific and cultural elite, and leaders of women's organisations. The exhibition is open until August 28.

Links

Eesti Elu/Estonian Life article about the exhibition and photo gallery of the opening in two languages: https://eestielu.ca/mery-crystal-ras-royal-visit-to-the-golden-waterfall-at-tokko-arrak-gallery-in-tallinns-town-hall-square/

video: Mery Crystal Ra's work "Philosophy" completed in 3 hours.
Estonian National Culture Foundation 35. Open Air Museum. Tallinn.
https://youtu.be/M966bBSfDQA?si=GC8rKkX2ZbfEUKtY

New short film "MERY CRYSTAL RA" on youtube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vy5USDUkDc&pp=iggCQAE%3D&fbclid=IwVERDUAQdPc1leHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR7gDf_f_M2KvAW2wH_GNeI_wFTEG5dWfFCF1WG8FEwegf8BuRwOUSBxSIbNjQ_aem_X-16AaG25-c4jvPON4s91Q

Video 6.2 min from the finale of the TV Tower exhibition: VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgTsk9FCWxg
Australian filmmaker Anthony Noack made a 6.2 min short film WHITE SHIP
The film "WHITE SHIP" world premiere. Trailers for the short film "WHITE SHIP": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrBiN_tmjdo