Radical jewellery: The art of having something distinctive to say
By Emma Crichton-Miller
Published: June 12 2009 16:04 | Last updated: June 12 2009 16:04
We are told that diamond sales are plummeting and that even rap stars are pressed to stretch to real bling. With gold at a new peak, both jewellers and buyers of jewellery are squeezed. For one substantial group of jewellers, however, this is not all bad news.
Artist-jewellers are not a new subgroup – pioneer modernists such as Picasso, Max Ernst, Jean Arp, Salvador Dali, Alexander Calder, Giorgio de Chirico and even Alberto Giacometti all made excursions into this miniature realm. Since the 1950s, however, there has been a growing movement of artist-jewellers, from across Europe, into the US, Japan and Australia, whose primary means of creative expression is jewellery, and whose concern is far less the intrinsic value of their materials and far more what they can do and say with them.
These jewellers, all contributors to what has been loosely called “the new jewellery movement”, usually work on their own, making one-off pieces. They may use precious metals and valuable or semi-precious stones, but some eschew gold and gems altogether and create pieces from plastic or paper, glass or metal, silicone or bone, wood or nylon, pebbles, grasses, yarn and even recycled rubbish.
This is not cheap costume jewellery, however. While many are interested in enhancing the beauty of the consumer, others experiment boldly with form and colour, or use jewellery to explore complex ideas and difficult emotions.
Others again – perhaps the Dutch bad boys Gijs Bakker and Ted Noten above all – use jewellery to challenge conventional ideas of beauty and of what jewellery is allowed to be. As Mr Bakker once declared: “I dislike jewellery. I dislike the behaviour of jewellery-buying ladies … If jewellery is only decorative … I lose interest.”
The foundation he established in Italy in 1995, to encourage designers to make conceptual jewellery for industrial production, was frankly named Chi ha paura … ? (Who’s Afraid ... ?) His attitude is matched by Ted Noten’s manifesto, “jewellery must be shamelessly curious”, amply fulfilled by his recent chewing gum necklace and brooches made from a crushed Mercedes.
This alternative tradition of jewellery has passionate and loyal fans. As early as 1962 Gillian Naylor, the design historian, in an article titled Diamonds are for Dowagers, celebrated the rise of the artist jeweller.
There are significant pieces in museums across the world, including the V&A, the Fitzwilliam and MIMA, and many private collectors.
Meanwhile individual teachers have encouraged generations of makers to stretch themselves and their audience.
Until recently, all this by turns interesting, challenging and beautiful work has existed in shadowy parallel to the mainstream, drawing admirers, but still far from attracting the column inches or sales returns of a Theo Fennel or Stephen Webster. Now, however, there is new mood stirring. Big stones and even the glitter of gold are no longer the priority. Seeming to have something distinctive to say matters more than having something substantial to spend.
At the UK Crafts Council-sponsored art fair, Collect, in London last month, the crowds around the jewellery tables were thick as flies. Lesley Craze reports that her non-precious jewellery is selling very well and Contemporary Applied Arts has had its best May in 60 years. With prices from the low hundreds through to £10,000 ($16,405), you can buy an awful lot of thought, technique and imagination for less than the cost of many single stones. More established names – Wendy Ramshaw, Bryan Illsley, Jane Adam, Peter Chang – are also serious investments.
As if sensing an opportunity, there are a number of significant exhibitions this summer where you can sample some of the more adventurous work. Opening at Alternatives in London on Monday is a touring exhibition of contemporary French jewellery, where you can see Amandine Meunier’s necklaces from cut inner tube and rope, Maud Traon’s deviant rings made of plastic and modelling clay and Jana Natier’s necklaces formed from sliced Barbie dolls.
At Contemporary Applied Arts, Dorothy Hogg has gathered together 12 international makers under the rubric “Inner Voice” (June 26 – August 22). Herself the arch-exponent of exquisitely-made, powerfully-symbolic pieces, here Ms Hogg introduces recent RCA graduate Maria Militsi, Irish maker Angela O’Kelly, who is also showing her soft, beautiful paper pieces at flow (July 24 – September 19), Matthew Brady’s intriguing pieces from silver and resin, and many others. Lesley Craze Gallery is showing the 18 artists it took to Collect alongside contemporary jewellers Sonia Cheadle and Jo Hayes-Ward, until June 27.
While not all the work is radical in content, there is in the construction of every piece a defiance of mere finery and a determination to make jewellery speak equally for maker and wearer, to explore ideas whether about geometry or about gender, and to celebrate the value of workmanship and imagination over mere materials.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Posted by Shona Lockhart, 13th June 2009
Have a look at our website today for some radically different jewellery:
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