Elisabetta Cipriani Gallery is pleased to present The Treasures of Queen Elizabeth, a new collection by Italian French multidisciplinary artist Faust Cardinali. Composed of thirteen one-of-a-kind jewels, this sculptural body of work will be unveiled through a live performance on 16 October 2025 at 6:30 pm, during Frieze week in London. The exhibition will remain on view until 14 November 2025.
The Treasure of Queen Elizabeth is both a performance and a collection, shaped around the theme of transformation. Each of the thirteen works stands as an autonomous jewel, while collectively they form a single poetic body: an imagined entity that comes alive through movement, gesture, and wearability. The project invites the audience into a world where jewellery transcends adornment to become a medium of storytelling and change.
“This project is based on the idea of a ‘hypothetical body’,” explains Faust Cardinali. By this, the artist refers to a symbolic body assembled from jewels, one not defined by anatomy but by metaphor. Together, these works suggest a body that embodies meaning rather than form.
Highlights of the collection include the Crown of Queen Elizabeth; The Queen’s Skeleton, a necklace in silver and 18k gold incorporating charred bread and resin; The Queen’s Eye, a brooch in silver and 18k gold set with a pink morganite, its repoussé and chiselled details recalling antique craftsmanship; and the Yin and Yang Heart earrings in silver, gold, enamel, and diamonds, designed to unite as a symbolic heart.
Cardinali’s materials echo this notion of a hypothetical body. Charred bread, euro coins, and arrows are combined with noble metals and precious stones to evoke archaeological finds, ritual artefacts, and traditional jewellery. This interplay of the everyday and the precious speaks to how jewellery, once worn, can embody memory, identity, and cultural meaning.
Many works in the collection are realised through electroforming, a process that creates lightweight hollow structures with sculptural depth. Others are enriched with fire enamelling, an ancient technique that not only transforms the surface but also symbolises metamorphosis. Each piece is meticulously handmade by the artist, affirming the union of concept and craftsmanship at the heart of the project.
About Faust Cardinali
Faust Cardinali is a multidisciplinary artist whose work moves fluidly between sculpture, jewellery, drawing, and performance. Born in Paris in 1961 and trained as a sculptor and goldsmith, Cardinali has developed a distinctive artistic language that explores the symbolic potential of ornament and the plasticity of form. His practice examines the poetic plasticization of society — a term he coined to describe the transformation of memory, time, and ideology into material form.
Cardinali’s creations are at once archaeological and futuristic, poetic and provocative. Working with materials such as coral, synthetic resins, stalactites, aluminium, polyvinyl, and precious metals, he produces works that function as both adornment and philosophical statement. His jewellery pieces are not mere accessories but ritualistic objects — often performative and deeply conceptual — bridging the boundaries between art, sculpture, and the body.
Over the past three decades, Cardinali has presented major projects across Europe and Asia, including site-specific installations at the Saint-Sulpice Cathedral in Paris, the Triennale of Poznań, the Ci-Gong Gallery in South Korea, and the Poznań Biennale. In 2009, he launched Copyritto, a conceptual brand of sculptural jewellery that crystallised his artistic approach to wearable art.
Faust Cardinali lives and works between Italy and France. His practice is grounded in transformation, irony, and a deep belief in the symbolic power of objects to reflect — and disrupt — the world around us.
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