The garbage pin project

The wonderful Garbage pin project has made it to my hometown Antwerp! All the 90 jewelry-artists who contributed to the project, have their 5 tiny bags of waste on display. This means that a whole Silke&the Gallery-gallery-wall is covered with 450 little garbage bags. It looks beautiful and I never thought I would say that of so much rubbish, but I guess that is part of the plan. Ana Cardim did a great job there, not only on the display of the bags, but the entire project. It really raises awareness of what we do with our waste. By putting it on display it does not just show what waste means to those 90 people, it teaches you something about everyone, it feels like you get to know them a little. To illustrate this I have chosen to display the “garbage” of the two artists, Anna Fornari and Mari Ishikawa, that have been in former broesvitrine-posts, as I am happy to see them included in this exhibit as well. The statement that goes with their work can be found on Ana Cardims’ website under artists.

Ana Cardim does not just stick to adult gallery visitors, but also invites children to come to the exhibition. To get them to really take a good look at the project, she has made assignments appropriate for their age. Wow, not only has she managed to turn an important environmental issue into a large scaled jewelry project, she is attracting kids to a gallery with it!

The gabage pin project will stay in Antwerp, Belgium at Silke&the Gallery at least until the beginning of August. After that it travels to L.A., an update of where the project goes is shown on the website under news and on the klimt02 website.

Pendant moonlight shadow 2008

This week I’d like to continue with botanical inspired jewelry, the ‘pendant moonlight shadow 2008’.
“Under the moon light there is very profound various grays world. It is silent. I am one who is attracted by the color tone of grey, which is found in the shadows.” These are the words of Japanese-born Mari Ishikawa as published on the Klimt02 website.
Mari Ishikawa is inspired by the botanical and vanishing color pale green, which shows in photographs of plants taken under the moonlight. She is also surprised and attracted by the shapes and perfection of flowers and weeds in a field.
In the ‘pendant moonlight shadow 2008’, the color of the pendant is unmistakably connected with its shape. The fine, moss-like, grey silver creates a 3-dimensional structure with incredible depth. This structure casts shadows on itself, creating multiple shades of grey, I suppose similar to the ones seen under the moonlight. Like the green plant it is based on, the pendant looks alive. Its form grows into an elongated ball, while coiling the necklace it hangs from. Will it take over the whole necklace?

This work is part of the exhibition ‘Mari Ishikawa: Moonlight shadow’ at Villa Bengel in Idar-Oberstein, Germany. But hurry, it runs until the 31st of March!