Precious

Preciousness in jewellery in the traditional sense is usually related to its intrinsic value based on its rarity, its beauty or the sentimental values it brings to the wearer.

The works selected for this exhibition are based on the different perspectives of "preciousness" the artists communicate through their works.

Lauren Tickle (USA) creates her works using the US Dollar bills. She does not only challenge the notion of preciousness based on the jewellery's monetary value, also question where its value truly lies.

Tara Ko (HK) and Angela Ciobanu(Romania), both artists' works are about intangible value. Tara translates her sentimental feelings into jewellery which she can carry with her any time. Angela sees ones' memory about any precious moment as impermanent. Memory fades, just like her jewellery work made of paper.

Material value plays a large part in defining how precious the piece of jewellery is. Romy Mittleman(Australia) uses unwanted materials which has no specific value, transforming them into something unique. Cinnamon Lee (Australia) conceals the 'precious' part of the jewellery in her works.

 

Angela Ciobanu – Forget me not

Our mind collects memories. Bits of time, certain places, words, whispers, smiles, touches, fragrances perforate and cut their way, ‘wounding’ our mind until they become part of it. Blissful or painful,

we store them and we continuously transform them, changing as well the value we confer them.

Angela tried to look beyond the commonly accepted idea that jewelleryis associated to, that of adornment for the body. I disregarded thevalue the piece of jewellery should have in the eye of the viewer,and stressed upon the meanings and the values it has for the wearer.

The notion of preciousness, if any, is to be revealed primarily to the wearer, as a very personal experience.

Her objects are fragile, nearly ephemeral, reflecting the fragility of the memories that created them. And they bring back whispers, moments, smiles that ought not to be forgotten.

 

Cinnamon Lee – Tough Love

Conjugal rings, in particular, are powerful objects and arguably the most sentimental of all jewels. Their scale is minute, yet they can carry vast amounts of emotional investment and often equally vast amounts of monetary value. They convey universally understood connotations regarding social and marital status, while simultaneously embodying personal promises shared intimately between couples. These kinds of rings are unique as objects in their ability to become intrinsic parts of people’s personalities and even their bodies – they are often one of the only items worn on the body that is never removed. At the same time they are objects capable of gathering so much emotional embellishment that their owners may be incited to cast the precious jewels into gaping valleys or vast oceans in dramatic acts of abandon.

 

Lauren Tickle – Increasing Value

Lauren’s work is an experiment in the concepts of value and adornment. The Values Exploration process takes currency of defined value, distills it to graphic elements, then resynthesizes an object of much greater value. How and why are these notes distanced from their face value? Idea, concept, process, and labor create value. Is this new, finished form a microcosm of industrial production? or a parody?

She forces wearers and observers to reflect on the concept of adornment in our society. One of the most conscious actions humans undertake is the decision of what to wear or not. My work takes underlying materialism and makes it explicit, imploring evaluation from all sides in each social context.

 

Romy Mittleman – Precious Derbis

The roads and footpaths of Melbourne, littered with discarded objects and scattered bottle caps, are the perfect inspiration for a jeweller. Romy loves the thought that she has picked up something, literally from the ground and that the item has its own past. For example, the film canister necklace previously held someone's real photos and life. It's like she can honour and capture that history in a meaningful and unexpected way.

While working with colour, texture and shape, She manipulates precious metals by hand and use fine wax wires to create organic jewellery forms.

 

Tara Ko – My Precious Medal

We treasure all the beautiful moments with our loved ones. Birth and growth, sentiment and reaction, these all create a meaningful life experience.

This project is try to capture the precious moment and further develop into an wearable art and share the birth of praise through a set of 7 medal brooches. By using different hand craft technique and mixed materials, by creating with Tara’s baby’s assist and her foot print and hair, the medal series is a unique statement of birth and growth, the process itself no doubt as the most valuable memory that kept forever.

A kiss is truly a pleasure moment of giving and accepting love to each other, a kiss defines love is ‘you are not alone’, and a kiss is an intimate touch of caring and sharing. 3 pairs of couple rings are designed to support each other physically by a kiss, and perform in a structure of being together.