MJW Overview 2020: Echoes of a Meal

Echoes of a Meal is, in essence, an invitation to experience a comfortable togetherness. The artists invite you to feel the intensity and closeness of a Danish meal, and to leave with both your minds and bellies full. 

Both the making of jewellery and the preparation of a meal are intensely sensory experiences, and both jewellery and food are made and consumed, in some sense, by the body. The memory of that perfect bite of herbed potato will remain stored away, to be brought back into clear focus by the fleeting scent of parsley in the air. What remains after the meal is the memory of the act. With jewellery, the memory is similarly stored and decoded by the senses, forming a connection between time and place: ‘Where did I last feel the weight of silver against my chest?’

Echoes of a Meal offers the generous gift of community and a familiar environment where conversation flows freely across cultures. Prompted by the specific aesthetic of a traditional Danish meal, the table, as well as the jewellery upon it, will become a platform where artists of all backgrounds can meet and open up to each other, to exchange thoughts and come closer together.

JANNE HANSEN (JH)
The exhibition design refers to a traditional Danish table setting with its classic Danish dishes and aesthetic and the intensity associated with the togetherness a meal can offer. This year, 2020, is German-Danish friendship year, and we wish to contribute to this cultural exchange by presenting elements that are essentially Danish and recognisable as such. A table setting and the essence of a meal fit these prerequisites and work well with the polyphonous theme of the echo – echo as a document of an event, a feeling, a tradition. There is something very reassuring about being able to spot the similarities and differences between these two cultures, and we hope to open up a dialogue not only about food culture and society but also about Danish jewellery art and its approach and position in the world of international jewellery.

JH
The individual pieces do relate to community, but the pieces also deal with a range of other topics such as our senses and how they influence so many aspects of our interpretation and perception of the world. For us as jewellery makers, the creation of jewellery and the preparation of a meal both share an intense use of the senses, as both meals and jewellery are produced and used by the body. The individual works approach the theme with their own particular use of materials, narrative and form, but ultimately come together to present an extensive menu of observations and expressions.