Kati Saarits's (b. 1992, Tallinn) work is defined by a sensitive approach to materiality and with an intuitive, hand-driven process. Moving between applied and visual arts, she explores the transitional spaces between functional objects and sculptural forms, addressing hierarchies that exist between everyday items and the language of fine art. Her research focuses on tableware and table settings, exploring how society, industrial processes and history have shaped the materials and functionalities found on the kitchen table. Through material-based installations, she investigates objecthood and functionality, working with traditional applied arts techniques such as ceramics, textiles and glass, often combining them with found or second-hand materials. She also creates her own techniques that root to traditional crafts and are expanded through personal artistic processes. Recently, her work has centered around the objects and handicraft techniques that have shaped the local, Esotonian, kitchen table over the past century, seeking their potential to generate new forms and aesthetics. She is particularly interested in categories of tableware that have faded from contemporary domestic settings. Separating objects and methods from their original contexts, she keeps only hints of their background and past functions and applies them using various artistic techniques. In her practice, she trusts material-led approaches, valuing intuitive decision-making as a way to move between concepts. This instinctive relationship with process forms a central part of her work.
Saarits holds a bachelor’s degree from the Estonian Academy of Arts in Installation and Sculpture and has furthered her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana and in the carpentry program at Tallinn Construction School. She is currently pursuing an MA in Crafts Studies at the Estonian Academy of Arts. In 2025, she received the Eduard Wiiralt Stipend and the Young Sculptor Award.
Contact:
katisaarits@gmail.com
Saarits holds a bachelor’s degree from the Estonian Academy of Arts in Installation and Sculpture and has furthered her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana and in the carpentry program at Tallinn Construction School. She is currently pursuing an MA in Crafts Studies at the Estonian Academy of Arts. In 2025, she received the Eduard Wiiralt Stipend and the Young Sculptor Award.
Working on Instructed Ideals, Pinned. Photo: Chun Au Yeung
katisaarits@gmail.com