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Metal Winners
By Cory Dugan
DECEMBER 8, 1997:
Jewelry
can be, as seen in the Jewels of the Romanovs
exhibition, an imperious and ostentatious artifice. On the other
hand as evidenced by Revelations, an exhibit
of contemporary work by members of the Society of North American
Goldsmiths at the National Ornamental Metal Museum it can
also be an urbane and egalitarian art form.
Unlike the empty opulence in Overton Park,
Revelations is quiet and thoughtful, reflective in
the intellectual rather than the ocular sense. While the works
are by members of a association of goldsmiths, actual gold is as
rare and sparingly used in this work as it is in real life.
Silver is the most commonly utilized metal, followed by copper,
steel, and brass. Gemstones are even rarer than gold; slate and
marble, enamel and glass serve the purpose when metal alone is
insufficient.
Fine-art jewelry over the past few decades has more and more followed the directions of sculpture and architecture than
those of design and fashion. In some cases, this results in work
that stretches the definition of jewelry beyond its already
flexible boundaries Michelle Milner Scotts
Trova-esque Try Cycle and Marjorie Schicks clunky
papier-mache constructions are simply bad as sculpture and
ludicrous as jewelry. In most cases, however, the work benefits
from the influences by exploring not only those fluctuant
boundaries but even the very concept of jewelry.
Architecture and industrial design may at first seem strange
bedfellows to jewelry, but all are in fact related to and, to
some extent, dictated by the human form and the human scale. The
artists in Revelations who explore this relationship
do so with wit and with varying degrees of reverence. Lynda
Laroches Site Plan, an elegant pin of marble and silver, is
a fairly faithful abstraction of an architectural drawing in
shallow three-dimension. Christine Leitners Melting Pot,
Joe Muenchs Target Brooch, and Sandra Zilkers
Flower/Leaf/Wall also successfully blend either architectural
design or actual, albeit tiny, architectural space into their
work.
Industrial and commercial design show up in the pattern of
tire-treads in Boris Ballys surprisingly classical Tread
Wear Brooches; in Robin Crafts oddly baroque pieces based
on eyewear designs; and in Sandra Enterlines exquisite
capsule pendants, expertly fabricated of steel and silver to
contain, exhibit, and protect fragile birds eggs. These
latter pieces are potently lyric and ironic, juxtaposing nature
with slick space-age industrial design.
Equally ironic, especially considering the oppugnant exhibit
halfway across town, is Kiwon Wangs Re-Cycled. Employing
simple rings fashioned from silver and gold, Wang eschews the
traditional embellishments of gemstones and opts instead for tiny
compacted stacks of scrap newspaper. The result is impractical as
actual jewelry (one ring, for example, would extend three or four
inches from the wearers finger); but, as such, it calls
into question the purpose and relevance of valuable jewelry
itself in todays disposable society.

Kiff Slemons, Penannular, (silver, brass, pencils, erasers).
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More direct in his questioning is Kiff Slemmons, whose Penannular
uses historical means to contemporary ends. The penannular form
is Celtic in origin, a simple pin used to close a medieval cloak;
eventually, it became more decorative and less functional, more
brooch than clasp, and a symbol of status. This, of course, is
the history of most jewelry forms, and Slemmons uses the
penannular as a parable. His own is elaborate and symmetrical,
traditionally Celtic in design. Except the pin has been replaced
by a common #2 yellow pencil, the jewels by worn pink pencil
erasers. From utilitarian to decorative to status symbol to
completely useless; the cycle echoes the history of Western art.
The most inquisitive piece in the Reflections exhibit
is one that truly questions the role of jewelry in its
relationship to the human body. One accepts that jewelry by its
nature and its design is scaled to the body rings,
bracelets, necklaces, earrings, all are made to fit around or
through certain parts of the human anatomy. With Adornments:
Cellulitis of the Neck, Julia Barello takes jewelrys
relationship to the body one step further; not only is her
gold-plated silver neckpiece designed to fit the body, it also
exhibits in rendered relief what is beneath the skin at the exact
point where the jewelry hides it veins, nerves, muscles,
fat, etc.
Is the consumer public ready for conceptual jewelry? Its
doubtful. But faced, at Christmas time, with Tiffanys and
the Brooks, they should at least consider it a welcome and
(hopefully) thought-provoking respite from the overbearing
materialism of the holiday season. After all, isnt everyone
looking for a bargain? And Revelations, at a fifth
the admission price of Romanovs, is worth tenfold as
much in true value.
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