Erik Risto Merisalu

• Archive
• Tutor: Aimur Takk
• Book
• 170 x 220mm

For several years I have had a jewellers practice. When the work is done, it is given to the client and I often never see it again. It is sent to travel the world, shining on the bodies of all kinds of people. Unable to have a physical archive of my work, I wanted to make it as a book – a printed matter where I could collect and store my pieces, thoughts, aesthetics and inspirations. In the first part of the archive, printed with RISO, I try to find a language that describes the subculture where my work exists. To unfold and communicate on certain projects that I’ve been working closely with – screenshots of notes, talks with clients, and current thoughts. The second part of the book is printed digitally and it focuses on displaying the work itself.

I’ve made the book binding out of silver, so the reader could get familiar with the materiality I’m mostly working with. When gently bending the comb binding type loops, gaps open up that allow more pages to be added – a possibility to keep this archive alive, progressing through time, like a journal. The reader could also remove all the pages and use the binding as an object itself or create a completely different archive or collection of pages.