Totem Necklace “Hero”
Aigana Gali Totem Necklace “Hero”, 2021 Gold-plated bronze necklace 28 x 16.5 cm full necklace, 14 x 11 cm when detached (head with bird on a sun disk), 215 grams. Edition of 25 plus 2 AP Signed and numbered Aigana Gali’s wearable art project Totem Necklace “Hero” (2021) is a contemporary reimagination of the traditional Kazakh necklace Onirzhiek. Historically worn by the warriors of the great Central Asian steppes, the spiritual craft of making the Onirzhiek necklace has been passed on between generations for millennia. The archaeological expeditions in eastern Kazakhstan have found examples of such amulet adornments from the sixth-fourth centuries Before the Common Era. In this totemic creation Aigana Gali brings her people’s ancient tradition into the modern world. The artist enlivens the customary interconnected horizontal rows of the Kazakh chest necklace with deities and metaphors from different times and locales of our global multi-cultural society. The bird reminisces about Noah’s biblical heroic salvation of the animal kingdom, and the luminous golden disk on which the bird rests references humanity’s oneness symbolized by the Ancient Egyptian God of Sun Ra. The Hero’s genderless face cautions of the dangers of the social ego, its wide-open third eye invites wisdom […]
Vases (Vaso Vida) Ring
Maria Nepomuceno Vases (Vaso Vida), 2021 18kt yellow satin gold, 18kt white gold and baroque pearl ring 3 x 3 cm (31 grams) edition of 10 plus 2AP signed and numbered ‘My first (virtual) encounter with Elisabetta took place on February 2020, a few days before the Coronavirus pandemic begins. It was incredible to feel the world changing radically throughout the creation process. In my perspective, those little sculptures became to me a symbol of a time when people hugged each other, touched each other naturally, without fear. As a jewel touches the skin. In this project where I created those wearable sculptures, the human body is the support. I can experiment the perfect meaning of the work when it integrates with the body landscape.Those microcosms are atavistically connected to the work I’ve been developing in sculpture. Beads, pearls, vases…As babies the jewels evoke their origin at the large mothers’ installations that I produced. I named Vases these necklace and ring series of works, because it symbolizes the feminine power, fertility, vital energy. Vases contain the mystery where life happens.’ – Maria Nepomuceno
Shell (Neptunea Angulata)
Rebecca Horn Shell (Neptunea Angulata), 2014 18kt pink gold ring Edition of 12 The jewelry project came to life through collaboration between the artist and Luisa del Valle, a noted goldsmith living in Spain. After months of research, del Valle sourced rare stones, shells and ammonites to develop the concept of movement and energy central to Horn’s work. Each piece is unique, hand-made and exquisitely crafted by del Valle through the ancient Etruscan technique. As a result of their collaboration, this jewelry is a mélange of antiquity and contemporaneity, timeless sculptural pieces in the form of rings, earrings and necklaces which are deeply sensual.
Within earshot
Kendell Geers Within earshot, 2011 18kt yellow gold bullet earrings 2.6 x 3.6 x 0.6 cm Edition of 10 Signed and numbered The 2011 collaboration between Kendell Geers and Elisabetta Cipriani resulted in three different iconic pieces that convey the characteristic intensity of the artist’s works. Within Earshot are a pair of earrings casted from a real exploded bullet used by the artist to realise one of a series of sculptures made of bulletproof glass shot at with a rifle.
Sweets
Paolo Canevari Sweets (Snake), 2019 silver ring 4.5 x 3 cm edition of 10 one of 10 designs The instinct from our childhood, to play and fiddle with the wrapping after the candy is gone, evokes the thought process as Canevari engages in this project, Sweets. The artist engages with the limitations of the malleable aluminium wrapper in such playful whims that subvert our ability to recognise objects. From the suggestion of a cushion-cut ring design, to the reptile shapes of snakes and lizards, the limitations of candy wrapping elevate Canevari’s mythos of happiness into creating a nostalgic dialogue between the piece and the wearer, reminiscent of our childhood imaginations. Each piece reflects Canevari’s examination of recognisable images and permanence. The wearable art pieces Sweets are cast in silver, and yet, the unique texture of aluminium foil plays with our perception of materiality as we discover that what is believed to be fragile, is actually everlasting.
Superficie
Enrico Castellani Superficie, 2013 18kt yellow satin gold necklace 6.2 x 6.2 cm Edition of 12 Signed and numbered Since the late 1950’s Enrico Castellani’s work has been characterized by striking relief structures called Superficie. The jewellery project came to life in 2012/2013, using a hammer and a chisel, the artist has created bracelets and necklaces made in three different colours of gold. The geometrical patterns created in these jewels alternate positive and negative space and establish a strong interplay between light and shadow.
Dismantle (with diamonds)
Joy BC Dismantle (with diamonds), 2023 Recycled 18kt yellow gold, recycled 925 silver, black rhodium and 0.70kt natural yellow diamonds Edition 1 of 3 plus 1 AP Unique within the series ” To fully understand classical sculpture, I felt the urge to ‘deconstruct’ or ‘cut’ it apart. I use to dogmatically look for ultimate ‘perfection’, being taught through institutions and western society what proportions and western ideals of beauty were. Then the only way to fully understand it I felt was to dismantle it, take it all apart. I was also interested in why western sculptures were stone white and shown in white gallery spaces. Many Greek sculptures where highly colored and it was only much later on that were they bleached either by weather, time or individuals. When I studied at the Glasgow school of art, and had my lunch in the corridors, there were huge white plaster copies of Michelangelo’s ‘enslaved’ and ‘la Vittoria di Samothrace’ – all of which were white. I was also the year of the first fire, and saw images of the white plasters totally blackened by the smoke. That image stayed with me – hence the blackening of the silver. This piece explores […]
Pommes de Jong
Jacqueline de Jong Pommes de Jong, 2016 Shrunk potato, sprouts, 18kt yellow gold plated pendant 13.5 cm Unique Ref. P1 Pommes de Jong is an ongoing project that came to life in 2007 in Bouan (Bourbonnais, France) where in the mid 1990’s de Jong and her husband decided to buy a house. She created a vegetable garden and they planted potatoes in memory of the lack of food during the war. De Jong stored the potatoes in a 13th Century cellar and suddenly realized that she was fascinated by the huge amount of sprouts that were growing from the shrunk tubers. When de Jong was asked by a jewellery collector to make a jewel for her, she thought that she might do something with these shrunk potatoes and their sprouts that were getting longer and longer. Pommes de Jong were inspired by the idea of transforming a humble object into a precious one. In the realization of the wearable art, the potatoes and their sprouts are dried slowly by the artist over a period of two years and are submerged in a bath of platinum or gold becoming exclusive pieces of wearable art.