Sir John Cass School of Art Media and Design MA Degree Show 2010

London Metropolitan University's MA by Project 2010 Degree show put on display some very good work.
A strong balance of concept, craftsmanship and display made the show especially successful.

As there were many great works in this show I am just focusing on the jewellery designer/makers in this blog post.

Most of these artists I know very well as we started at London Met together but they took the 2 year part-time route within their course.  I understood their initial proposal ideas but saw very little of the evolution of the work until this night. I was very impressed with the why, what, and how they moved their work into the final permutations.

Dyana Ripero's work (above) is all about movement and how adornment can be used to demonstrate personality, character and a raw sexuality. It is very fashion and performance oriented and punk rock to the core!  The fun, edgy side of jewellery!

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De Anna Kiernan's display demonstrated how her work was about the fit and how it was worn on the body.  The sensuous curves and smooth textures of her necklaces felt at home nestled into the divots and slopes of a woman's neck.  (This isn't just speculation.  I know this personally as I was one of the models for her work.)

She wanted to not display the necklaces by placing them on the body but to display the body using the necklaces.  To call attention to the beauty every woman holds.

Ms. Kiernan's design skills were recognized by the Adler Company during the Adler Design Competiton in June 2009

http://www.adler-award.com/competition/

Her work will also be featured in the November 2010 issue of UK Vogue

and during Brilliantly Birmingham 2010 (weblink unavailable at posting time)

You can see more of her work and contact her through her website:

www.deannakiernan.co.uk

email: info@deannakiernan.co.uk

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Isabelle Busnel developed jewellery around ideas of concavity and unusual forms of attachment using magnets and tension.  Her work is whimsical and innocent but has the ability to be very provocative if used properly.  A playful poke at two ways jewellery can function.  She mostly works in enameled copper and steel but there were two fascinating brooches with wonderful play of inside and outside made of silver. I just love them particularly -- that little peek inside...

You can contact Isabelle at her email: busnelisabelle@gmail.com

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Kelly Nacht's jewellery is based on Islamic patterning and the geometry of pattern itself.  She hand pierced each piece and layered them to create depth and to pull the viewer into the work.  When displayed on the skin the shadows of the geometry flow and undulate across and around the body in a fascinating display of light and dark.

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Peta Bush has developed an idea that has long been needed -- attractive medicinal jewellery.  She took the techniques of Eastern trigger point release therapy and adapted them to wearable art. Her jewellery is designed to put pressure on certain point of the body to help in pain and tension reduction without being clunky, ugly, or to utilitarian in aesthetic.  These items are smooth, organic and attractive. They call attention to themselves not the person wearing them nor their medical problem.  A big "Amen" to that is what I have to add.

You can delve further into Peta's  research in her blog at: 

http://medicaljewellery.wordpress.com/

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Pop Up Jewellery Shop

It was a challenge to create works that would retail for 20 GBP and still have significance for me and be interesting conceptually and visually.

The logical considerations for making a feasible design monetarily were:

Option 1:  Use free or very inexpensive materials and expend my TIME.

Option 2: Expend no time and spend cash on materials.

I chose Option 3: Two free materials, One expensive material used sparingly, and a sensible amount of time.

The connotations of the materials and the multi-layered
interpretations those connotations afford were my over-riding focus.

A pen given away for free by one of the UK's largest banks.  22-kt gold leaf applied to the ink reservoir and white house paint.

A pen worn clipped to the shirt pocket.  A thoughtful gift given.  A tongue-in-cheek work of art calling attention to an unstable basis for economic feasibility.

It is the thought that counts.

Needless to say, this is a departure from my usual jewellery visually but it shares the subtlety of my other work. It is not an obvious one-line statement. You have to pay attention to catch all the nuances.


All the rest of the participating artists chose their own interpretation of what £20 jewellery should be and worked that into their personal styles.


The opening went very well with lots of participants and attendees.

and there will be a second opening this Friday June 25th from 4 until...

So come join us and see the plethera of works for £20!

Construction: The Parts and the Whole

How does one make a statement?

How is that statement constructed?

What are the signifiers?

Do we piece together -- building a whole from the parts?

Or do we breakdown the whole to a single part?

Does each part carry the same meaning as the whole?

How does the viewer read the signifiers?

Does the whole make its statement if it is out of context?

Does the statement need an explanation or a statement of intent from the artist?

[1]

[1] All photographs and jewellery by Rae Mearkle

Differences

What does jewellery communicate?

What does a T-shirt communicate?

What does sculpture communicate?

Why does it communicate poignantly?

What do you want to communicate?

Connections

The Heart is an odd thing.

We cannot control it but we try.

We cannot avoid it but we try. 

We dare not look in its darkest corners but we try.

To connect to the other, we must try.

We must share.

We must communicate poignantly.

Placement Part 2: Social Connotations

 When we place we speak.

We declare:

We draw connections:

We communicate:

We speak about ourselves...

Placement Part 1 -- Our Environment

How and where things are placed affects our interpretations of them.

They become other than 'just' this or that.

It is obvious when things are 'placed'. The placement becomes deliberate with an implied reasoning.

Imaginations are sparked.

Questions are asked of items placed:

Why was it placed there?
Why was it placed just so?
What will happen to it now?


Connotations are then created. 

[1]

[1] All photographs by Rae Mearkle

Physical Manifestation

Language and art form a duality with both being 'immediate constructions'[1] used to communicate the abstract unknown of one entity's interior to another.

Thoughts, Dreams, Feelings 


Langauge, Art, Emotions

[2]

"Speech (hence, language) is a vehicle, an instrument, the mediation of something else (soul, thought, passion); it absorbs the entirety of the mental...not expression but immediate construction." [3]


"...in becoming aware of the thought nascent within us...when we speak to the other, thus sweeping him into truth, as if himself, by himself, were discovering it......the priciple of the exteriority of language and of thought [and feelings]: one has a 'picture' in the mind and one seeks to 'render' it." [4]


[2] All photos by Rae Mearkle
[1], [3], [4] Barthes, Roland, The Semiotic Challenge