Feels — EMMA PIIRTONIEMI

feels solo exhibition

Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, Ontario
September 21, 2019 – January 5, 2020
Part of Festival of Cool
Exhibited during Nuit Blanche, 2019

With this installation of contemporary jewellery entitled Feels, I expand the intimate, individual experience of jewellery objects to become shared by many at once. Speaking both to collective experience and to our interior, emotional lives, the large cumulation of 122 individually carved acrylic pendants are suspended in a glimmering, perpetual burst of fireworks. A spectacle of material mystery and luminescence, the motif of fireworks engages with phenomena, the manufacture of spectacle, and our desire to experience moments of beauty.

The use of the colloquial term “feels” plays to an inexplicable and overwhelming sense of emotion. These aspects of our interior emotional lives, however unspoken or unquantifiable they may be, happen through deeply affecting experiences and meaningful moments of contemplation. This work aims to spark reflective engagement, illuminating the significance of feeling and of taking time, if just for a moment.

Feels, in situ Harbourfront Centre, Toronto Carved acrylic, monofilament 2019 Image courtesy of Brian Medina — *Feels*, in situ
Harbourfront Centre, Toronto
Carved acrylic, monofilament
2019
Image courtesy of Brian Medina

Feels, detail in situ Harbourfront Centre, Toronto Carved acrylic, monofilament 2019 Image courtesy of Brian Medina — *Feels*, detail in situ
Harbourfront Centre, Toronto
Carved acrylic, monofilament
2019
Image courtesy of Brian Medina

feels solo exhibition

Scout, Toronto, Ontario
January 17, 2020 – February 12, 2020
Part of DesignTO Festival

This version of Feels presents as a window installation, in conjunction with the DesignTO Festival. The completely re-designed configuration of acrylic pendants is a site-specific piece for the Scout window. With the space’s given white background, the installation design focuses on a concentration of colour with almost retro arcs of teal and green; providing a new take on the idea of spectacle. This work was featured by Designlines as one of their favourite exhibitions from DesignTO.