ear positioners

This weeks’ piece is a jewel made for rabbits and not humans. These Ear Positioners are part of a series of 'animal accessories' and show a human’s interpretation of what an animal might need or want.

At first, I was attracted by the way this work looks, it is incredibly well-made. Then I was repelled by its function, why would you force a bunny's ear into a certain position? They made me wonder in which situation a rabbit could possibly need or want to wear them. It might be fashionable for rabbits to keep their ears stuck in that position at all times, or it can be used as a helmet that goes with a suit of armor. So a way a bunny could benefit from wearing the “Ear Positioners” is, when people(!) made it go to war, and it had to fight opponents armed with swords (yes, having two boys really influences my thoughts!). In both ways, humans take control of a fictional rabbits’ life!

This interpretation of the way humans manipulate the world around us to suit our needs, is the work of Miel-Margarita Paredes, from Portland OR, USA. She uses the animal form in a humoristic way to engage the viewer and point out the sheer absurdity of our interactions with the world around us. Whether these serve the greater good of humanity or are done out of mere entertainment.

Storica

For this weeks post I have found a beautiful contemporary piece of history (Storica is Italian and means historical in English) in this neckpiece, by Anna Fornari. It is made out of 18 karat gold and sealing wax. It touches subjects like identity and identification and made me think of soldiers wearing their name-tags around their neck.

Identification-symbols have been worn by men since ancient history. Signet rings are a good example of that. They have been used troughout history to make waxed seals and are a representative of historical-symbolical evolution. Anna Fornari, has been researching and working with seals and their traditions. In this piece, the Italian artist has translated history in a contemporary way, the history of mankind resting on the shoulders of today's people.

Unfortunately I won't be able to see this well-designed neckpiece for real, but it is presented at the Alternatives Gallery in Rome, Italy, as part of the exhibit 'I segni dell’identità' starting on the 22nd of November 2008!
Found thanks to Klimt02.

Where's my gum

What if you're happily chewing on a piece of gum and all of a sudden it drops out of your mouth? You might think, whaa, where did it go?! But not Jiska Hartog and Michiel Henneman or the jewellery design duo 'Wanted Jewellery'; they consider it as a new piece of jewellery! They even like the idea so much that they reproduced the gum in a nice bubblegummie-pink color of plastic and turned it into a brooch. To a lot of people it might be a bit over the top, and that is exactly what they are interested in. They like to play with the expectations of the whole society of what jewellery really is. To them, not only can jewellery be an expression of wealth, it can also show your taste, and that is taken very literally in this case! Personally, I love the idea and the way it looks. Although as a hard core minty fresh gum-addict it also feels like a bit of a waste, I think I'd rather keep it where it belongs, in my mouth!

Michiel Henneman and Jiska Hartog have started 'Wanted Jewellery' in March 2007 and are based in The Netherlands.