ART JEWELLERY

The jewellery from the ‘Japan Collection’ appears to be traditionally Japanese. Looks are deceptive however, since the image elements originate rather from combined fragments of other artforms like the art of flower arrangement, printing arts, (garden) architecture, authentic Japanese clothing or characters from the Kabuki theatre.

Based on my western sense of beauty and combining these fragments with western elements I construct Japanese-like jewellery.

An example of this is the brooch Sagimusume (heron girl), originally a modest figure in a Japanese print. With subtle interventions I pull that image out of the second dimension and into the third; red threads draw one’s eye from that point to wander further over the image, a moving white face, labradorite snowflakes, to end at the bottom at a knotted black thread, an addition traditionally found at the bottom of the ‘inro’ (a small medicine box), but here it is the conclusion of the brooch. This is one of those moments when I ‘twist’ an ornament, by confronting image elements with each other which are placed outside their Japanese context.

The collection contains more. For instance, a Delft blue vase (brooch Untitled) with blossom of prune: this brooch is elevated from the clothing, like the traditional Japanese slippers born by little blocks of ebony. Or a stretched, basket-like form made of a spectacle glass and filled with golden flowers (brooch Ikebana).

A folded wrapping of different, coloured strips of textile complete each jewel.