Jane Remm. Views on a Landscape
Curator: Siim Preiman
Starting from 25 October, the exhibition “Views on a Landscape” by Jane Remm will be open at Tallinn City Gallery. The artist, focusing on the depiction of Estonian forests and, more broadly, landscapes, will present her new works that depict the shadow zones or peripheries of the familiar beautiful landscape. The exhibition is curated by Siim Preiman.
Jane Remm is interested in the presentation of landscapes in culture and how they have been designed over the years. In the exhibition “Views on a Landscape”, Remm continues contemplating the relations between humankind and the landscape, this time stepping off the roadside and deeper into the woods. The exhibited works could be divided in two – those that depict the meeting points of different artificial and natural landscape components, the tree stumps as legacy trees that had come to their natural end.
“The types of landscapes that are valued change over time and depend on attitudes. For example, mires have traditionally been an area both feared and avoided; today, the mire is a place to go berry picking or for recreation; it is the quintessential wilderness,” writes Jane Remm. “Ordinary (anti-)landscapes are being increasingly valued, both from an aesthetic and an ecological viewpoint. Nature begins to flourish in abandoned quarries shortly after human activity subsides. First, pioneer species colonise the site, and a few years later, tree saplings follow.”
“What kind of forest is beautiful?” asks Kalevi Kull in the text accompanying the exhibition. “I know that some prefer a well-groomed forest with no twig litter, where the trees are straight and free of fungi. I know that some prefer a mixed-age forest, where you can find very old trees and tree stumps with bracket fungi. The forest can be an artificial community or a heritage community with minor groups, or a primeval community bearing no sign of human interference – some might prefer this, while others prefer that. These evaluations, however, shift decisions made about forests and influence the direction in which communities will change, how the landscape will change, and how the green areas and biodiversity will change.”
As part of the exhibition, City Gallery will host a seminar titled “Meanings of Landscape” on 24 November, which will explore various perspectives related to studies of landscape and nature. Speakers at the seminar include, among others: Kalevi Kull, Liina Unt, Kristjan Piirimäe and Piret Pungas-Kohv. More detailed information will be available shortly via the Art Hall website.
Jane Remm (1978) has studied art at Tartu Art College (1996–1999), University of Tartu, Department of Fine Art (BA 2003) and the Estonian Academy of Arts, Department of Interdisciplinary Arts (MA 2007), with additional studies in andragogy (MA 2012). She has had several solo exhibitions and has also taken part in numerous group exhibitions and projects in Estonia and abroad. Remm is a member of the Estonian Painters Association. Her works can be found in private collections and in the collection of the Tartu Art Museum.
The 2019 exhibition programme at Tallinn Art Hall directs special attention towards the possibility of being good and ecologically responsible in the circumstances of certain ruin. Five exhibitions congregate around these themes of which Jane Remm’s “Views on a Landscape” is the fourth. The preceding exhibition was the international group exhibition “The Art of Being Good,” held in the main hall of Tallinn Art Hall. The last exhibition in the series will be “Black Gold” by Sten Saarits and Edgar Tedresaar to be opened at City Gallery on 19 December. The curator of the series is Siim Preiman.
Thanks to: Estonian Cultural Endowment, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Estonia, Estonian Artists Association, AkzoNobel, Aleksander Kuchmezov, Liina Remm, Maria Tamm.