Extranalities- Pictureware.

Felieke van der Leest (NO/NL)

In the photo we see a California housewife, if the caption is to be believed, who once wanted to raise the low status of eggs by making them into jewellery. Felieke van der Leest’s own work has something unmistakably absurdist about it. Grist to her mill. These are the eggs of the goose with the golden eggs. In her case, the goose also shows some leg. Felieke made the work with the seed bead technique she is known for. Gold-plated beads in this case of no less than 24k.  Another picture that Felieke took under her wing was the one with the two young women. What if they were to be photographed in our time? They could be a #metoo activist or be wearing ‘fan merch’ from Felieke’s band Scrotum Clamp.

Herman Hermsen (NL)

Peter Vermandere (BE)

Sara Gackowska (PL/IT)

Three photos, each showing a woman wearing jewellery: a girl shows homemade goods for a sales fair, a young woman wears ‘Indian Jewelry’ and a lady pays tribute to the button cell battery, a great technical innovation at the time.

Sara Gackowska draws inspiration from the atmosphere of analogue photos, made with film, chemicals and paper. How different it is now, when we swipe our fingers across glass to take in visual images. Sara zooms in on the printed photo. The discs are pixels taken from the paper photographs. In the necklace, each part is formed from exactly one photo: a girl, a young woman and a lady.

Denise Reytan (DE)

A jeweller’s couple is smiling proudly at us. They have made a Christmas tree out of old jewellery. And they are wearing a few things themselves, such as a watch on a breast pocket. It was the bird on the top right that set Denise Reyan’s imagination to work. The bird is attracted to the gems and the glitter. Just like the couple’s clientele. But the bird is also free according to Denise. After she has given him a shiny silver coat, he flies away. On his journey, the little bird meets a crocodile. And who knows how many new friends are waiting along the way…

Timothy Information Limited (UK)

Timothy Information Limited aka Tim Carson saw, while looking at the photos from the old days, quite some people wearing all their brooches and buttons at the same time. These people clearly want to say something. Or maybe they just want to belong, which also gives it a sad edge. Tim was curious to find out how young and optimistic Bruna and Doug had fared. He managed to track down Bruna. The plan was that Tim would make jewellery based on what Bruna told him about her life. He would send the pieces to her in exchange for a photo of her wearing them. Bruna, probably overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the Brit, withdrew.

What Tim has left, is a shadow of an event that was once captured in a photograph. He also made a time capsule for Bruna with a collection of experiences that make you who you are. Finally, there is a brooch with the text ‘I am here’. But who is where and when was that? Simply look at Tim’s double portrait to know that photos can play games with you. 

Sofia Björkman (SE)

The photograph that Sofia Björkman got hold of was about an artist who was casting shells and nuts. She also found a piece of newspaper article, with sentences like ‘A woman wearing a solid silver peanut on a cord around her neck is not necessarily showing her political preference’ and ‘Sometimes nature doesn’t produce the perfection people seem to want….’.

Another photo shows a model with a futuristic wire headpiece. The bird she is holding is also a wire sculpture. Sofia decided to start working with wire. She started drawing in 3D to get close to ‘the perfection people seem to want’. In the end, the work you see here is not made of metal wire but of thread-like polycarbonate. Light, transparent and strong. But also associated with plastic pollution and unhealthy substances. Sofia does not show the sea creature itself, but its – equally beautiful – skeleton.

Christoph Zellweger (CH)

It is the year 1946 and we see a table with jewellery confiscated in Germany. With this image in mind Christoph Zellweger examined “that which has been confiscated, sealed and preserved.” The jewellery in the ReCollection series consists of old metal cigarette cases, sealed hermetically. His work relates to the ongoing debate about the aftermath of colonialism. How do we deal with the millions of artworks and cultural objects that have ended up in museums, collections and private possession through unjust means?

Fragments of text can be half-read under the thick yellowish lacquered surfaces. It reads, for example, ‘Legally stolen’ or ‘Embroidered with pearls and adorned with cowries’.  Christoph explains that the handwritten words are engraved by sandblasting, and come from various articles and reports on the many Re’s: Repatriation, Restitution, Redistribution and Repair.

Catarina Silva (PT)

Catarina Silva had to respond to a photo of papal jewellery. And a huge Schiaparelli necklace of glass beads encrusted in gold leaf. It is clear why photographers made these images. Such a photo is meant to capture a memory. But what Catarina noticed is that the image also evokes other memories. In her case, the old photographs were a bridge to festive memories, in the form of candy wrappers and chocolate foil, carefully spread out and preserved. Catarina Silva has made that ritual materialize with the delicate coloured metal foil. It is now no longer a photo that evokes a memory. Instead, it is the piece of jewellery that evokes the beauty of transient memories.