Chest of drawers in A room for shadows

Last Thursday I saw the installation 'Chest of drawers' at the opening of the exhibition: 'A room for shadows'. The Finnish Anna Rikkinen has built this beautiful serene installation, a 3 drawer cardboard cupboard, that holds a neckpiece. A grey ribbon is used to function as a necklace, and is combined with a pendant made from white-gray silver and light gray cardboard. The different shades of grey are echoed inside the bottom drawer, where the shape of the pendant is seen as if it has been lying in the drawer for a long period of time and dust has formed an outline. It is a clever reference to the baroque shape, inspired by jewelry and ornaments from the past.

That historical background is what makes Anna Rikkinen come to a new purified, contemporary and minimalistic piece with only the outlines giving away the luxury that they are based on. The layer of dust also means that the jewel of the installation has not been worn for a very long time. Even though it is perfectly wearable, demonstrated by the fact that it is sold separately, it is not Anna's main concern. Here, the human body has been replaced by a 'Chest of drawers' and the neckpiece has left its' mark. Would it leave a mark if it had not been replaced?

The exhibition 'A room for shadows' can be seen at gallery Caroline Van Hoek in Brussels, Belgium, untill the 28th of February.

Photo's taken by Jaan Seitsara.

Face Masks

A different outlook onto the world, in this weeks post, through these Facemasks made by Canadian jeweler Arielle de Pinto. In 2007, she made 2 masks, a male and a female one. In her 2009, ‘lookbook’ she included a unisex mask.
Arielle de Pinto looks at facial expressions in fashion magazines for inspiration and with the last one it has resulted in a more aggressive, less symmetrical and prim mask. With its enlarged and simplified eyes, nose and mouth (facial features) the mask reminds me of a wooden African tribal mask. The big difference between the two is that Arielle de Pinto’s Facemasks are very flexible and therefore wearable. So instead of wearing a rigid mask it feels like wearing a veil, as the masks follow the shape of the wearer’s head perfectly. It is the only clue of what the wearer’s face may look like, since it is fully covered by the mask.
Her amazing masks have been crocheted using different colors of metal threads, which give them their features. The male mask (2nd photograph) has a beard and is balding, while the female mask is less distinct, so it could have been unisex as well.
The oversized masks don’t really fit the human head properly, but stay on because of their incredible weight of 2 kilograms. Even though the “eyes” of the mask tend to hang on the side of the wearer’s head, it is still possible to look through it, because of the loosely made metalwork.

The male and female masks are part of the exhibit 'Equilibrium: Body as Site' held in Rubin and L Galleries at the University of Texas Dept. of Art in El Paso, Texas, USA. It focuses on art that engages the body as a site. What is so refreshing about this exhibit is that it will privilege the sensorial over the intellectual. I would sure like to know what it feels like to wear the Facemasks!

Found thanks to Metalcyberspace blog!

Garbage Pin

Yeah, I'm blogging again! This time about the versatile garbage pin. It's a pin with a silver structure that can hold a tiny, transparent plastic bag (the garbage bag). Once full, this bag can be removed, closed with a wire and kept as a memory of the experience. The pin questions the value of the waste and the memories attached to it, as they get combined with a precious metal! Throwing things away can be great relief, a way of cleansing your space. This garbage pin can be a call to reflect what we do with our waste. By wearing your own ‘experiences’ in a clear plastic garbage bag on your body, the piece becomes very personal. It has both an exhibitionistic and a voyeuristic side to it, because it could show what the wearer has been up to.
The contents of the bag go beyond their material properties, and may represent happiness, hope, fears or even secrets and guilt. The contents of the bag do not have to be random waste, but it can consciously be filled with symbols for contaminants of our society like war, pollution and global warming to challenge the voyeur.
Ana Cardim is the wonderful Portuguese designer of this manufactured pin. She mass-produced her pin so that many wearers could 'finish' the piece by filling the garbage bags. The piece is a kit that includes 5 spare plastic bags and wires. It even became a project called the garbage pin project (sponsored with a grant by the Portuguese ministry of culture). 100 artists teamed up to each do their own version of the Garbage Pin, by filling 5 garbage bags accompanied by photographs and a little written synopsis. This means 500 little garbage bags! Hopefully a schedule of the exhibitions will be published soon.

FINGERFOOD

Looking for some new jewelry to wear is part of getting ready for the holiday season. So is planning what to eat. With these FINGERFOOD-rings your problems are easily solved! The ultimate party multi-tasking solution is sold by FRED and designed by Ken Goldman (what's in a name!). I love the serene white plastic plate with a little curly rim for extra glamour. No Christmas dinner is complete without using these funny rings first! They are a new design, but FRED sells lots more jewelry like these COOL JEWELS, 2-CARAT CUP and KEY RING. All of FRED's stuff is so much fun, I know my Christmas wish-list just got lots bigger!

The Furry ring

An amazing piece of jewelry this week! It is this stunning Furry ring, a simple shape with a soft furry center completely out of gold. It has been created by Giovanni Corvaja in 2001. The ring is an impressive piece and it is an important step towards a his new series named the Golden Fleece collection.

Giovanni Corvaja started this new collection to satisfy his need to search for the mythological Golden Fleece. Instead of keeping to look for it, he decided to actually make it himself. After working very hard at his life's philosophy for 12 years, he has now succeeded.
He regards his success to have made the Golden Fleece as a journey, not as a destination. He managed to make great pieces of jewelry on that journey, like the Furry ring. I am quite anxious to touch it, since the gold really looks like fur! I am so glad he kept on doing research to get to a totally new level of golden fur. The pieces of the Golden Fleece collection are said to be strikingly soft to touch. Caressing one would give you the amazing sensation of touching a kitten. The Golden Fleece itself also looks much finer. These are unexpected, unbelievable differences between the Furry ring and the pieces of the new collection.

Until the 27th of December the Furry ring can be seen at Galerie Bijouterie Jungblut in Luxemburg (city), Luxemburg; as a part of the exhibition Jacqueline Ryan and Giovanni Corvaja.

In the spring of 2009 the preliminary collection of 5 pieces, also containing a ring; will be presented to the public for the first time in Munich, Germany at a special exhibition of Modern Masters. So in three months you can expect an update of this collection (with photographs) on this blog!

Much much more about this incredible Golden Fleece and its Italian creator can be read here.