Just must : international jewellery art exhibition, Tallinn 2008

Just Must (in Estonian: 'black and nothing but') was the theme of a jewellery exhibition in Tallinn in 2008, initiated and organised by the Estonian professor of jewellery Kadri Malk. Fifty-eight artists from eighteen countries presented their own, widely varying, individual solutions to this subject as documented in the present book. jewellery shown here is 'black' on the one hand because dark or materials such as jet, ebony or diamonds have been used to make it. But it is also 'black' in the figurative sense, for example in the way it deals with existential problems. Pieces such as Konrad Mehus' gold Valium-dispenser brooch, Tanel Veenre's Guilty Conscience or Francis Willemstijn's The Widow are overtly about human anxieties, cares and crises. A Dark Painting by Tore Svensson, on the other hand, is just what the title says: a painting that can be worn as a brooch. approaches taken by these artists to the black theme documents the avant-garde stance represented in their art works: jewellery is no longer viewed as merely decorative or a status symbol whose value depends solely on the material of which it is made. Instead it becomes a vehicle for expressing aesthetic ideas by means of unconventional materials and forms. Artists featured in this title are: Robert Baines (Australia); Manfred Bischoff (Italy); Peter Chang (UK); Giovanni Corvaja (Italy); Johanna Dahm (Switzerland); Karl Fritsch (Germany); Mari Funaki (Japan); Therese Hilbert (Germany); Rian de Jong (the Netherlands); Otto Kunzli (Germany); Kadri Malk (Estonia); Ruudt Peters (the Netherlands); Karen Pontoppidan (Denmark); and, Ramon Puig Cuyas (Spain).