Creating Waves a solo show of Ute Decker at Elisabetta Cipriani Gallery
Preview 19 May 6 – 8.30 2022
20 – 31 May 2022, Mayfair, London
Ocean, neck sculpture, 18kt Fairtrade Gold © Photography Xavier Young
Elisabetta Cipriani presents a series of new sensuous and powerful wearable sculptures by the master of the sculptural jewel Ute Decker.
The award winning, internationally exhibited artist jeweller, with pieces in several museum collections including the V&A sculpts movement into powerful minimalist forms for her first solo show at the gallery.
Sensuous undulations characterize the new Waves series created for this exhibition. Expressing the beauty of nature through abstractions, Ute Decker is arresting time to take a closer look at the movement of waves, usually so fleeting
Wild Waters, arm sculpture, recycled silver © Photography Xavier Young
From the gentle and calming waves of her neck piece “Ocean” to powerful forces of nature erupting in her arm sculpture “Wild Waters”, they curve sensuously around the arm and neck
Elisabetta Cipriani explains, “When I discovered Ute’s work in 2013, I was fascinated by how her infinite sensuous curves were moving in space. The body acts as a canvas for her sculptural fluid shapes. With its movement, these shapes theatrically transform into something else. Ute’s work is constantly surprising. Her use of essential shapes, clean lines, exquisite surface textures and the treatment of empty space give her work a powerful presence; Ute’s work is timeless, abstract and disciplined. The new body of work presented for the gallery, highlights the artist’s continuous research and development in the study of movement revealing a new harmonious balance of simplicity with complexity”
Improvisation Loops, neck sculpture, recycled silver, 18kt Fairtrade Gold © Photography Xavier Young Same piece worn in two different configurations
Improvisation Loops, neck sculpture, recycled silver, 18kt Fairtrade Gold © Photography Xavier Young Same piece worn in two different configurations
“Improvisations” is another series created for this exhibition, drawing inspiration from the central theme of connections.
Exploring the idea of individuality and how we are nevertheless part of a connected world, the work in this series is not fixed but fluid.
Here Ute Decker made every single loop different, some are even open and can be connected in different configurations by the wearer.
With this sense of freedom and playfulness the piece becomes an engaging body adornment while at the same time inviting a dialogue about contemporary global interconnectedness.
Each of Ute Decker’s jewels is a conversation piece and storyteller “I want to acknowledge the profound human need to connect and commune with each other and nature. Jewellery, the most intimate of artforms, is my medium of telling a story.”
Provenance: Fairtrade Gold & Recycled Metals
Improvisation Loops, neck sculpture, recycled silver, 18kt Fairtrade Gold © Model Photography Xavier Young, Still Photography Ute Decker
Fairtrade Gold & Recycled MetalsUte started life as a political economist, a journalist and linguist. Self-taught, she created jewellery privately for nearly 20 years before she first exhibited her wearable sculptures in 2009 at the age of 40. She quickly earned international recognition as “the architectural jeweller” for the sweeping scale and originality of her minimalist sculptures.
There is a theme that runs through these endeavours – combining a poetic artistic expression with reflections on the provenance of materials, its histories and impacts. All pieces are made either in Fairtrade Gold or recycled metals. Ute Decker, a pioneer of the responsible jewellery movement, was one of the very first in the world to work with Fairtrade Gold. Each of her Fairtrade Gold pieces can be traced all the way from the artisanal mining cooperative in the highlands of Peru to her bench in central London.
Improvisation Loops, neck sculpture, recycled silver, 18kt Fairtrade Gold © Model Photography Xavier Young, Still Photography Ute Decker
“Ethics in jewellery is not just about the environment, it is equally about the untold stories of social, political and economic exploitation. While I have more questions than answers, with these miniature sculptures and the materials I use, I want to explore alternative visions of dignity and empowerment”.
Process
“I have an idea where the structure will go, yet the process is more like a jazz improvisation – I am always open for the unexpected”, explains Ute Decker. She begins “sketching” in garden wire. Inspired by a visit to Japan and a love of Zen calligraphy, after much practice she creates the final piece in one uninterrupted flow of movement. After sculpting with this dynamic spontaneity, Ute Decker then allows the creations to evolve and mature in a slow process of wearing and adjustments which gives even her most sculptural forms a graceful balance on the body.
Great care and love are manifested in the meticulously crafted textures often framed by a single burnished line.
“I sculpt each piece individually in my London studio. Even within the community of a limited-edition series, each piece is as individual and unique as its wearer.”
Ute Decker – Creating Waves – solo show
20 – 31 May 2022
Preview: 19 May 2022 from 6pm to 8.30 pm
RSVP: info@elisabettacipriani.com
Elisabetta Cipriani Gallery – Wearable Art
23 Heddon Street, 1st Floor
London W1B 4BQ
Monday to Saturday 10am – 6pm
By appointment only
To make an appointment to view the exhibition please contact
info@elisabettacipriani.com or +44 (0) 207 734 2066
Press Images
For further information & interviews please contact:
mobile: +44 7917 030 387
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