ALONE WE ARE A DROP OF WATER. TOGETHER WE ARE AN OCEAN

Two galleries in Tallinn – Haus Gallery and Solaris Gallery – will open a large-scale exhibition by the Estonian Watercolour Society, amplifying what is important in the city’s cultural space, with an eloquent, socially conscious title:

‘ALONE WE ARE A DROP OF WATER. TOGETHER WE ARE AN OCEAN.’

In total, the two exhibitions showcase around a hundred works that speak to the viewer through water, both indirectly and directly. There is something fleeting in the blending and binding nature of the watercolour technique, in the way it transcends from tone to tone. Blue becomes yellow, smoothly and seamlessly, just as black is assisted by grey and white, or as bright red turns lightly and naturally into green. The behaviour of colours in watercolour technique illustrates symbolic integration – tolerance and the ability of the alike and the unlike to coexist in a balanced common environment…

The watercolourists themselves have pointed out in their exhibition that although the ocean, including the sea, has inspired artists and writers for centuries, its essence remains inexhaustible. They too are drawn again and again by the vastness of water. Although there are countless quotations about the sea, not to mention works with sea views or music that carries the rhythms of the sea, water continues to attract with its existential nature. For our watercolourists, the proximity to the sea is homely, so they use it to pick time-relevant connections and bring these to the viewer. At the exhibitions in Haus and Solaris, watercolourists explore the different symbolic meanings of ocean-inspired expression of thought.

‘Alone we are a drop of water, together we are an ocean’ – the most common interpretation of this quote is that there is strength in unity. But also – what we know is just a droplet, and what we do not know is a whole ocean. Or that one drop of water holds the secrets of all the ‘oceans’, or that all the answers lie within ourselves. Or that what we are doing appears to be just a drop in the ocean, without realising that the ocean would be a drop smaller without us…

Does every drop in the ocean matter? Is a drop in the big sea different from a drop falling on a hot rock? Does the big water absorb and subdue the small water, or does it owe its size to every small droplet?

These questions are asked, and you are also invited to ask, by the authors of the exhibition:

Agne Kuusing-Soome, Aleks Kase, Anneliis Vabul, Annika Tonts, Christel Allik, Eero Ijavoinen, Eleny Kasemets, Elize Hiiop, Enno Ootsing, Epp Viires, Erki Kannus, Eve Ermann, Eve Viidalepp, Illimar Paul, Jose Mario Calero Vizcaino, Kadri Bormeister, Kairi Orgusaar, Kerstin Rei, Kärt Karjatse, Külli Tael, Lea Malin, Lii Pähkel, Liisi Tani, Mari Roosvalt, Mariann Hakk-Eve, Marje Üksine, Marju Bormeister, Naima Neidre, Pille Laub, Pille Lehis, Rein Mägar, Rete Jallai, Sergei Minin, Tiina Tammetalu, Tiina Tarve, Tiiu Pallo-Vaik, Tiiu Übi, Tuulikki Tolli, Veera Stanishevskaja, Virve Albri, Ülle Kuldkepp.

The exhibition is curated by Mari Roosvalt, Kerstin Rei, Meelis Tammemägi, and Piia Ausman.

The exhibition can be visited at the Solaris Gallery until 28 June 2022. The exhibition is open at Haus Gallery until 30 June 2022.

More information:

Estonian Watercolour Society:

Mari Roosvalt

mari.roosvalt@artun.ee

+372 551 4039

Kerstin Rei

kerstin.rei@gmail.com

+372 528 7245

Solaris Gallery:

Meelis Tammemägi