PRESS RELEASE

JASS KASELAAN (1981) will open his personal exhibition Light is our strength in Hobusepea gallery at 6pm on November 30th, 2011.

Jass Kaselaan has studied sculpture in Tartu Higher Art School and obtained a Master of Fine Arts in the department of sculpture at Estonian Academy of Arts in 2008. In 2011, Kaselaan was awarded the Anton Starkopf Prize for his large-scale sculptural and spatial installations held in 2009-2011: personal exhibition „Passage of Souls“ in 2011 in Tartu Art House; personal exhibition „Return You Children of Man“ in 2010 in Tallinn City Gallery and personal exhibition „Swan Song“ in 2009 in Hobusepea Gallery, Tallinn.

Jass Kaselaan's substantial and extensive art projects can be characterized by the totality of installation where every single detail has been thoroughly considered. Kaselaan effortlessly treats the seemingly imperceptible and fathomless themes such as the swan song to Estonian nationality and identity in 2009; references to collective memory, remembering and deep-rooted beliefs in 2010; ironic sacredness and creating abstract space in 2011.

According to the artist, his present exhibition is about a perpetuum mobile that is an ever moving mechanism, working continuously without an external supply of energy. „At the current exposition, there is a perpetuum mobile working in the gallery, showing its capacity and producing light for a growing plant. Light is our strength – the world is saved, scientific laws are surmounted, the times of the world's lack of energy are over – we no longer need the sun nor the universe around us.“ However, Kaselaan's machine, functioning in a forgotten and slightly sinister environment, is ironically not referring to the progress of the technicized society but is visualizing a possible scenario for future where no sun, oxygen and all that won't be needed. Not that the humankind had conquered physical laws – it is probably because the extras have left the room and forgotten to switch off the light.

Elin Kard

Exhibition will be open until December 12, 2011.

Supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Hingede Rändamine. Tartu Kunstnimaja 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soLcmUcPCIg

TULGE TAGASI INIMESE LAPSED, Tallinna Linnagalerii 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1_FOuRibGU

Luigelaul. Hobusepea galerii, Tallinn 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj-G20Obe4c