Tarja Tuupanen
Jeweller
Published: 01.04.2022
tarjatuupanen.com
Bio
Tarja Tuupanen has studied jewellery and stonework in Lappeenranta in South Carelia Polytechnic, Finland (BA 1999) and she graduated as MFA from Ädellab, Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, (SE) in 2013. Since 1997 she has taken part in exhibitions internationally, both in group and solo shows. In addition, working as an artist, she has been active in the Finnish Jewellery Art Association to promote contemporary jewellery field and to develop the possibilities of artists. She has been working as a teacher both in Finland and abroad. Tuupanen is a member of the Hibernate-artist group.Statement
Statement 2018Stone has always been my main material as a jewellery artist, my practice is dominated by it. The relationship to it is so thorough that it becomes more than just a material to begin with. Whether the stone is in its natural form or industrially made item, it always has individual material character, cultural references, physical realities and value or status aspects which has to be considered and to get acquainted with. I work with stone.
Statement 2013
The background for the body of work is skill, the core concept within craft. The term is embedded in the craft field and loaded with values and preconceptions. How is it discussed today and what does it really mean to the maker? The traditional stone-working skill is my most precious tool; it is my fetish and my lifeline. My practice is dominated by one material — stone. The relationship to it is so thorough that it becomes more than just a material to begin with. Yet, what happens when this skill encounters ready-made marble tableware, tacky candleholders or salt shakers from the 80s or mass-produced items instead of raw material? How does it change the work, the values and the control of skills?
Statement 2004-2011
Stone is my main material as a jewellery artist. I have worked with it ten years, and still it offers me challenge and surprises. I love it for its versatility, and hate it for its limitations. Working with stone is slow and it suits me. I don´t want to romanticize it that the timetaking working process would be meditative or spiritual, but the slowness has its value and the concrete grinding work helps me think. In the first working years I disliked the stone for its heaviness and clumsyness, and I wanted to change these qualities to the opposite by pushing the material to its edge by making it as thin and light as possible. Nowdays I´m already asking what the stone wants to say.
The idea and the material go hand in hand, but sometimes the stone piece offers something you can´t pass, acolour change or a line or a structure. Then you have to change the original plan. Sometimes I search for these treasures to be used. And in the other hand there is always the need to control, need to do a perfect shape, a perfect oval.
The white cacholong has offered me the theme for some years. In the naturalmaterial there are all the white shades you can think of. When you look its whiteness long enough, you start to see some colours. This stone has the perfect athmosphere, it is minimalistic and quiet, stagnant but not boring, quite noble even. It looks soft and gentle, but it is not the truth. In a white stone all details show more clearly. In the sulek-burcu-emptiness-2015 there is content. Where is the limit of your expression or form, where is the limit in minimalism?
The white is waiting, it is silent, quiet and calm, it is clear and comforting, and frighteningly empty. Can ablanco portrait tell more than a photo? Is there something more to look at in white scenery than in the view from your balcony?
I do love the northernwinter, when everything is covered with snow. It is silent, quiet and calm. Clear and comforting and frighteningly empty.
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