Mia and Tarja

Artist list

Mia Maljojoki, Tarja Tuupanen

Their work, however, has developed in divergent directions.

Mia Maljojoki addresses the body, internal and external peculiarities as well as projections, deformations, and aberrations, from which her pictorial idiom initially always stems. During this process, the works of jewellery serve as a reference or quotation, as a cunning allusion, a disconcerting indiscretion. For the concept of the body will linger simply as a fragment, a memory, a feeling manifested in curious, seemingly sensual objects which appear as imprints or even impressions, as the present, corporeal elements and residues of a real physical entity. Yet coming into contact with the porcelain harbours a surprise – the cheerful, poetic and elegant colouration stands in stark opposition to the banality of the human bodies. The original reference is transformed into an artefact, into an artificial and artistic form, one that remains open to references and which invites experimentation with one’s own predilections when wearing and viewing it.

By contrast, Tarja Tuupanen has been using stone for over twenty years. One could call it an obsession, a continuous fascination with the cold, hard substance. From the very beginning, natural stone in a rough block, and marble used for commercial everyday objects have formed the basis of her equipment and found their way into her aesthetic repertoire. The design that ensues encompasses the challenges of craftsmanship combined with the final manifestation of intriguing yet appealing jewellery creations of real presence, shaped from an impervious material that is seemingly malleable. Tuupanen is a true master of stonecutting. Straightforwardness, authenticity, and approximity to and dialogue with the material are characteristic of the decisions she takes in her jewellery. In so doing, she succeeds in producing surprising results of great aesthetic virtue and quality.