From 31 May, ETDM will host metal and jewellery artist Leida Ilo’s solo exhibition “Head in the Clouds, Feet on the Ground”. The exhibition reveals the many facets of Ilo’s unique creations through a selection of her work from over five decades.

Over a long and distinguished career, Ilo (b. 1943) has created designs and applied art pieces for the (Tallinna Juveelitehas) Tallinn Jewellery Factory, fashioned an array of unique headpieces – for example, the crown for Miss Estonia 1990 – and crafted prize medals. She has also produced a number of sculptures for public spaces, the most famous of which are “Person with a Moving Brain” (Inimene liikuva ajuga, 1976) for Mustamäe Hospital and “Egg” (Muna, 1979) for the Tallinn Poultry Factory. Since 1970, Ilo has participated in many exhibitions, and her work is part of museum collections in Estonia, Germany, Hungary and Russia, as well as private collections from Estonia to Japan. 

The exhibition at ETDM consists of nearly 70 of Ilo’s works, all of which are unique. A significant part of this selection comes from ETDM’s collection, and the exhibition is composed mainly of jewellery and monumental pieces, accompanied by several murals made of metal wall tiles, which have previously remained hidden from the public in the artist’s personal archive. In addition to the completed works, the exhibition also includes a range of archival materials. “I am not aiming to be contemporary; my works are timeless,” Ilo says about her practice.

This ambition is well realised by her best-known works, the children’s spoons “Dog” (Koer) and “Rabbit” (Jänes), which were created for the Jewellery Factory in 1970 and are still in production today. Both are also part of ETDM’s permanent exhibition, “Introduction to Estonian Design”. 

Having graduated from the State Art Institute of the Estonian SSR in 1970, Ilo considers the time she spent working at the Jewellery Factory following that as an essential part of her development as an artist and path to finding her artistic handwriting. “The head artist, Liidia Elken, encouraged and encouraged us to take part in exhibitions – and we did”, she recalls. 

Since 1976, Ilo has worked as a freelancer and been a member of the Estonian Artists’ Association.

“I keep saying that the work makes itself – as an artist, you feel that something needs to be given form”, she says, offering the example of her use of garnets in her crown of thorns partly just because they were available. “Later, an art critic pointed out that I had put a drop of red blood – a garnet – on each of the crown’s thorns.”

Crowns clearly stand out in Ilo’s work. “I never think about who will wear the jewellery when I am creating it. If I did, there probably wouldn’t be so many crowns”, she says.

Ilo is not currently working on new jewellery but is focusing instead on preparing the exhibition, practising tai chi and reading the poetry of Betty Alver, Juhan Viiding and Artur Alliksaar. “And I have realised how important this moment is”, she says, referring to Alliksaare:

“There are no good times, there are no bad.
The present is all there is to be had.
What starts will never come to a stop.
Neither beauty nor ugliness is part of the plot.” (Translated by Hilary Brid)

Leida Ilo will give an artists’ talk on 6 June, and the exhibition will remain open until 8 September.

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Curator: Ketli Tiitsar
Design: Helen Oja
Graphic design: Tuuli Aule