15 February 2020
My chance visit to an exhibition by the French luxury jewellery brand turned out to be inspiring in more ways than one. The exhibit was sectioned on the basis of thematic commonalities in precious objects ranging from jewellery, vanity cases (and tiny objects within), time pieces and other personal trinkets reflecting their culture and time. I was interested in exploring the narratives that bound the objects in each room, as well as the interpretations of underlying themes of time, nature and love (amongst other influences such as architecture, fashion and fantasy) in high end, commercial (yet conceptual) artwork.
Inspiring craftsmanship in objects displayed:
Exploring different stone settings to invoke textures and surfaces
Exploring metal construction to reflect textures in fauna
Connecting precious and semi-precious stones with objects other than jewellery: here small personal objects such as lighters, hand mirrors, ashtrays, cosmetic applicators become items of personal adornment through their inherent intimate function.
Details and intricacy in reproducing from rendered drawings – material manifestation from 2D to 3D using craftsmanship
Reflection on learnings from curatorial text and descriptive references:
Drawing from the Italian Journalist Italo Calvino’s Six Memos for the Next Milennium, the curator, Alba Capplleiri has classified the curatorial on the basis of Time, Love and Nature, with sub sections talking about the relevance of aspects of fashion, architecture, exactitude, dance, lightness and exoticism in the Van Cleef and Arpels’ Jewellery collection. I liked the curatorial texts on these elements of classification, as they drew parallels with some abstract concepts and the fine jewellery.
design factory 