Mari Saarepera & Tauri Mae’s window exhibition “Equal, not equal!”

Saarepera and Mae talk about equality through a series of photos captured in the form of a performance. According to the artists, it is an abstract work on a double-sided canvas, made by both creators at the same time and made by throwing a string through the canvas. It is also possible to see the work completed during the perfomance through the gallery window.

Mari and Tauri: “From the point of view of equality, such a technique transforms a work of art into a work of both creators, where 50% of each party’s work is input from the other. However, such implementation may be unequal due to both authors’ personal motives. “Equality may not be equal, both can be influenced in different ways, ie equality signifies an ideal that never has a chance to come true.”

Recording the process in the form of video and photographs allows new perspectives to be created, showing the implementation as a collaboration or lack thereof, resulting in the creation of two different worlds. Mari Saarepera (1990) is an artist-designer, future art teacher, self-traveler and absurdist. She has studied blacksmithing at Tallinn Kopli Vocational School (2013) and the Estonian Academy of Arts (BA, 2016). She is currently completing her master’s degree in art teaching at the joint curriculum of Tallinn University and the Estonian Academy of Arts. On a daily basis, Saarepera draws, paints and creates collages and installation objects. In her works, she mainly discusses doubts, irony, absurdity and perfectionism, and considers dialogue between the artist and the viewer of the (artistic) work important.

Tauri Mae (1987) is a designer with an engineering background, whose strong technical background has been acquired at Tallinn University of Technology (2014). Mae has been involved in flight modeling, drawing, photography, music creation and product design. At the moment, his object of interest and research is light sculptures, he is fascinated by the connection of modern sculpture with engineering possibilities.

Together, the artists have created the lighting studio Saarepera & Mae (2012), which focuses on creating high-quality light sculptures in small series. Saarepera’s artist and Mae engineering background together form a dynamic and perfect pair, despite their contrasting personalities and qualifications.

Photo: Mari Saarepera & Tauri Mae. Equal, not equal. 2021