Nelli Tanner: Collecting Snow

Artist list

Nelli Tanner

When snow has fallen, all that is familiar dissolves into unfamiliar shapes. Outside the door, a pristine life awaits us. Even in Finland, where snowy winters are the norm, such a transformation loses nothing of its magic. This was the starting point for Nelli Tanner’s new work.

Tanner’s jewellery usually has a narrative character, which was evident even during her finals work at the Rietveld Academy. Her brooches display people in expressive postures; drastic abstraction allows everyone to project their own ideas onto them. A second aspect of her work is the lapsing of time and the traces that the past leaves behind, layer upon layer. This is beautifully symbolised by the blanket that snow lays over reality. In Nelli Tanner’s new pieces of jewellery, it is sometimes the form and sometimes the effect of the snow that represents the many layers of meaning in our existence. You can almost hear the crunching under the soles of your shoes, the creaking wheels of time.

Ward Schrijver