Changing and transforming objects, things that are around me every day catch my attention and I try to manipulate the way we look at them. I attempt to give them a new life and identity, a new way to be perceived, appropriated and used.
After my intervention, these transformed ‘things’ aim to speak with another language. In our society everything you see, buy or wear is often the same as everything else, even thoughts seem to have been globalized.
By transforming objects, I provide an opportunity and choice for people to look at things differently, and as an object slowly reveals itself, it is given back a certain power that has been lost.
I generally use abstraction as a renewal process, whereby for example, bouncing balls are made into homogenous neckpieces or postcards become slick black brooches. The changes that take place are already inherent in the object itself and it is not so much the final result that I am interested in as the possibilities of meanings revealed to us. This new potential of an object opens the boundaries of its interpretation and provokes in the viewer a new way to relate to them.
I like the notion that a piece of jewellery stands between the body (the self) and the world, representing a sort of link between the inner and the outer. As such they do not only envelope and protect the wearer but also they have the capacity to reach inside and move things, thoughts and feelings.
Brooches – ‘with other eyes’
This project investigates the use of photography in contemporary jewellery making. Selected photographs are transformed into small, personal objects to be adopted into the life and story of the wearer. The starting point is the collection of old pictures. I am interested in images we can relate to, frozen moments we may have lived, would have like to or one day will. The selected images all have a sense of the abstract, iconic and archetypal, that provoke collective feelings and are thus open to interpretation and appropriation. For example: A sunset, a fight, a journey, a storm, a kiss. The photographs in this particular body of work were bought on internet auction sites, a virtual jumble sale of other people’s stories, fragmented memories seen through other’s eyes.
The photographs are reproduced in their original size and format on a rigid support. Both sides of the picture are covered in resin. The side with the image has silver findings (faces the body) and is covered with a clear coating, while the back of the image (front of the brooch) is completely blackened becoming a blank, reflective canvas, a ‘void’. The project has been developed independently in my studio. It has gone through a period of rigorous technical development beginning in 2010. Futher exploration is envisaged for 2012, including different formats, new ways of sourcing images, development of series of ‘thematic’ pieces and I am also interested in the potential of using colour on the front of the piece.
Pendants – ‘hold on’
These pendants are made from the wooden handles of different sorts of brushes and tools. By cutting off it’s functional part and using only the ergonomic and simple shape of the wooden handle, I attempt to provide a ‘pure’ connection between body and object allowing thoughts and dreams to be held on to.
Rings – ‘who am I’
This is an ongoing and renewing ring collection called ‘who am I’. Instead of inscribing one’s initials or family insignia as a sign of belonging, I drill two little holes in these ‘signature’ rings. This way, the usually oval or round flat front of the ring suggests the archaic feature of a face. These rings celebrate the individual.
Pendants – ‘what’s left’
For this project commercial pendants were filed down to a fine gold dust leaving untouched only the ring that usually connects it to the chain or string. The gold dust is placed in a glass dome-like bottle. Its purpose is to ‘conserve’ the essence of the original pendant, the horse, the anchor, etc. What is worn is the remaining gold ring, now free from the weight of the rest of the pendant allowing the wearer the freedom of deciding for themselves day by day in what they believe.
Neckpiece – ‘what comes around’ from the collection THINGS HOLD TOGETHER
In this group of neckpieces made out of hand felted wool and called ‘what goes around comes around’ I was interested to conceal found plastic balls, glass and ceramic vintage pebbles to reveal their identity only through their weight and hardness.
‘Veneer’ 2014
Veneer is a mask, a cover up, a shield, a layer of a thin precious material applied to a cheaper support. I like to think that these pieces give the material a ‘return to life’. The thin layers of veneer don’t mask anything but are simply built up to create a three dimensional form, revealing this new identity. Each piece is given a unique shape informed by the grain of the wood. In this way the thin layer of veneer references it’s three-dimensional past as solid wood. The pieces’ irregular shapes are also partly inspired by the inkblot images used in a Rorschach test, a method of psychological evaluation. Psychologists use this test in an attempt to examine the personality of characteristics and emotional functioning of their patients. Like each of us, these works are made up of different elements, each with their own identity and uniqueness. The final works have
a shadow-like presence, representative of something belonging within.
