As part of the Handshake 8 journey, we have jewellery history lectures from the wonderful Andrea Daly, New Zealand Jeweller and educationalist. As part of a homework task, Daly required us to think about the unwritten rules of contemporary jewellery, consider our own rules that we abide by for our own jewellery practices and then make a work that breaks one of our rules.
- My first brainstorm was as follows:
Reduce, eliminate, discern, remove all faff/fluff/unnecessary distractions in the display/exhibition of pieces.
Show the back of brooches/pins when sharing them in photographs. The back is just as important as the front.
Show off your skill – technical skill and craftsmanship is highly regarded
Lots of women study this practice but few make it professionally successful.
Jewellery maker as artist
Cross disciplinary
Collaborative
Vehicle for strong ideas and political attitudes
Innovative
Relevant for today – connecting to issues that are relevant for today – CONTEMPORARY
Related to the BODY
Involves the viewer/audience as participants
Rules exist to be broken but only after you know the rules
Is self-referentialDifficulty in the Definition.
This exercise in ‘considering rules’ got me thinking that it is important, then to consider what I think Contemporary Jewellery actually is and how it might be defined, as what one believes C.J. (Contemporary Jewellery) has a direct relationship to the rules that are then associated. Is C.J. merely a critique of what is precious?
Damian Skinner suggests that while coming to terms with the C.J. world it is important to allow a definition that is both flexible and non-static, ever-evolving as the practitioners evolve with it. “Contemporary Jewelry is a self-reflexive studio craft practice that is orientated to the body.” (Edited by Damian Skinner, Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective, 2013, New York, Stirling Publishing. Skinner acknowledges that it is Areta Wilkinson who gave this definition at a talk in 2012. Page 10). If you continue to read the first chapter of Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective, Skinner delves into each term in the description and analyses them, it is well worth a read. But I am wondering if this is still a relevant definition for us in 2024. Are there aspects left out that comprise some artists’ practices in the present day? Is contemporary jewellery facing an identity crisis at this point in time? Is it still relevant?
I use the term Contemporary Jewellery to describe parts of my artistic practice because it seems to be the term that fits best, but it is not always a comfortable fit. The term is confusing, especially to those, let’s say 99.999999% of the population who have no idea what it means, but there are just as many arguments within the C.J. scene too. C.J. has largely existed since the end of WW1 and WW2, when a new world order emerged that sought to break with the past. Can a term that is used to describe an artistic practice that spans over 80 years accurately describe all that has occurred since its inception? Art jewellery, narrative jewellery, modern jewellery, autor jewellery, studio jewellery … there are so many terms that practitioners use to describe their practices and no matter where one lands for describing their own work, these terms never seem complete. My personal choice in using this C.J. is for the following reasons – I want and need my work to be relevant to the issues of today – therefore ‘contemporary’ as a term –
contemporary. / (kənˈtɛmprərɪ) / adjective. belonging to the same age; living or occurring in the same period of time. existing or occurring at the present time.Maybe the following terms are more applicable – (thanks to the trusty thesaurus) coeval, concurrent, contemporaneous, synchronous, àla mode, current, happening, in fashion (how dare the world fashion be mentioned), latest, modern (also refers to a time period for art so a problematic term), new-fangled (my favourite), present, present-day, recent, trendy, ultra-modern, up-to-date, up-to-the-minute, with it. And jewellery – most of my work relates to the body – mostly my body and/or the female body. But my pieces are not always easy to wear although that seems to be part of the work – that the issues I’m thinking about are heavy, uncomfortable, weighty and burdensome, making something easy, light and politely comfortable would be counterproductive.
But sometimes I think my jewellery is more conceptual – can there be conceptual jewellery- jewellery that is formed out of an idea, the idea being more important than the actual thing, the piece, the work, the jewel? Does it need an actual object to exist or is the chemical chain reaction of the thought process enough to substantiate something precious?