Material Worlds

At the weekend I visited the new Material Worlds wing at Tate Modern.

 

The work on show features artists who utilise all kinds of materials, often in larger scale installations. These included found objects, natural materials, textiles stitched in secret locations and even endless ropes of human hair.

Sheela Gowda, Behold 2009

Magdalena Abakanowicz, Embyology 1978–80

I was most excited to see work by one of my favourite artists, Louise Nevelson, in this new exhibit!

 

Louise Nevelson "An American Tribute to the British People" 1960–4 Painted wood, 3110 x 4424 x 920 mm 

 

This piece was gifted by Nevelson in 1965, titled "An American Tribute to the British People", Nevelson's her dealer said that the artist felt that it was appropriate for our monarchial country:

"Its cathedral-like aspect, which seems to present the viewer with an altar at which to kneel, perhaps to receive some royal blessing, and its gilded splendor … were considered peculiarly appropriate.’

Originally born in Czarist Russia, Nevelson lived most of her life in New York, and was heavily influenced by her surroundings. This glorious gold sculpture also reminds me of the iconic cities luxurious sky scrapers.

Art Deco plaque of the Empire State Building, New York.

The display caption tells us that Nevelson worked on this assemblage over a number of years, continually recomposing the found objects within it. Close-up it reminds me of the stacks of old paintings in gilt frames in auctions and junk shops. The golden coating they share emphasises the sense of a treasured item from another time. Covered and gathered they display an inherent value despite being cast away when no longer valued individually.

 

I first found Nevelson's work when I was at school and instantly captivated by her impressive structures. 

 

Growing up in a home where nothing was thrown away, I would scavenge interesting bits of wood from piles of timber and broken furniture in my dad's workshop and in Nevelson's sculptures I could identify the balustrades and chair legs amidst the hand sculpted pieces. 

The way she used a single colour to envelope her carefully assembled finds into these impressive structures had a huge impact on me. Nevelson liked black paint because it conjured "totality, peace and greatness." 

Louise Nevelson Black Wall 1959. Painted wood 2642x2165x648mm

There is such sensitivity in her compositions.

 

 

As the New York was redeveloped in the 1950's Nevelson faced eviction from her home and studio. The partially demolished buildings left detritus left from everyday lives, and she found her materials in the debris.

Some of her arrangements like Black Wall,  remind me of the different people living in apartments.

Harking back to the crowded cities like New York I can imagine these wooden boxes as a neighbourhood of personalities housed in different rooms. 

A community is made up of individuals. Living next to each other, but separated by these divides they are shown that they are all one.

If you are one of those inside it you can only see yourself and the four walls around you. Only we can see they are all unified by being able to look at the whole thing from a wider perspective.

 

 

The new Material Worlds wing is free & on now at Tate Modern.

Finding Diamonds in the Debris with Bernhard Schobinger

Bernhard Schobinger curiously handling one of my pieces of jewellery at Manchester Art Gallery

I first found Bernhard Schobinger's work whilst I was studying my degree at Manchester School of Art. His use of found objects combined with a well honed jeweller's skill and thoughtful composition proved that you could create wearable pieces in your own way, with the materials that interested you personally.

Bottle-Neck, Saw, Chain 2014 Glass, Saw blades, Stainless Steel. Broken bottles featured in a similar Schobinger piece I was struck by when I first started studying jewellery.

Rose Quartz & Bottle Chain Necklace 2014, rose quartz, bottle glass, gold. These objects look dangerous, but the edges are smoothed to be safe to wear.

It was one of his bottle necklaces that I had first discovered, its raw edges and simplicity had not been interfered with for the sake of "making it into a piece of jewellery". It was honest and unprettified. you knew what the objects were or had been. Here they were for you to wear as your statement, a concept of the jeweller's thoughts or simply because you liked the colour, shape and texture, the same as any other piece of jewellery.

Lens Spoon Chain 2013 silver, steel, glass, acrylic

The busts are cast from Schobinger's own daughter when she was a young girl.

Saw Blade Chain 2014 Steel, Stainless Steel

The purity of a young form creates a beautiful backdrop to the raw edges of the found objects.

Snake Playing with Pearl 1995 steel, cultured pearl, gold, black diamond, malachite, vermillion pigment

The other piece I remembered from my University days was the snake bangle. Almost cartoonish, it appealed to me with it's bright colour and the references to ancient jewellery, it had character. When I was looking at it more recently I noticed it had been coloured with malachite pigment. A mineral I love, the swirling greens of this marbled stone I have explored in my own work.

In this survey of Schobinger's work there was a vast display of techniques, materials and styles, as varied as the two pieces which stuck in my mind all these year. Much of the jewellery work featured precious elements as well as the unconventional materials which challenge perceptions of what is wearable, attractive and desirable.

Ring 2012 steel, pearl

However using a material which is rare and highly valued can reflect the time and effort put into a piece. If you are going to do something, do it well, as they say. This could mean using the best (finest?) materials possible.

File Ring, 2012, gold, steel, diamond

The majority of my own work is based in resin, not a valuable material to be hoarded and hallmarked like gold but one which I can freely manipulate and create colours and textures through my personal experiments. I can then choose whether or not to combine it with precious metal or additional stones. I love the contrast of the precious components with the detritus and worn-out objects in Schobinger's pieces so I was interested to hear his thoughts on these materials so I posed the question, "Do you use precious materials for yourself, or for other people?" By this I meant, if it was up to him would he only use found objects? Was the use of precious items to make them easier to understand by a wider audience, a compromise to elevate the broken, cast away debris and display his unquestionable skills as a goldsmith, demonstrating his experience and traditional training?  Bernhard's  answer was that it was for himself, not for "investment" in the piece, it is the individual material qualities he likes not the value they have. This became evident in the talk given by himself and Jo Bloxham giving us a deeper look at some of the pieces in the exhibition...

Drop of Water at the End of a Clothes-Line, 2000, Gold, white gold, diamond

This piece is cast in gold from a knot of plastic washing line Schobinger came across. Bernhard's Gallerist, Felix Flury from Gallery S O told me this was one of his favourite pieces as you could tell it's origins because of the particular tension in the knot. On Schobinger's precious version a single diamond moves freely from the end, his interpretation of a raindrop, suspended forever in one single drip. 

A little snap I took of Jo Bloxham explaining to us how Bernhard (left) created one of his pieces.

Reminiscing on his apprenticeship days he spoke of the traps in the sink to collect gold particles when they washed their hands and how the emery paper was salvaged because of it's gilded surface after smoothing the precious metal pieces. These were established places where traditional skills were taught and jewellery was their business. The contrast of Schobinger when he talks about his own workshop shows the approach of an artist. He treats all materials the same with a workbench strewn with the things he collects, ready for action, on hand when inspiration strikes him.

"If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?" Albert Einstein

In this way, a wrap of diamonds is easily knocked and scattered in the creative fray. He told us he gave himself  20 minutes to find what he could. And the rest? A votive offering to the gods of tidying up. Now and again as he works he might rediscover one of these tiny jewels, a diamond in the debris.

It is the material's properties which seem to matter most to him, how they can help him best achieve his creative intentions. For his saw-blade necklace seen in the exhibition he has used diamonds set in patterns of constellations. But as he puts it:

"They are not diamonds...they are stars".

Schobinger uses the materials that are accessible to him and interest him, whether they are a piece of broken cymbol salvaged from a dustbin or a rare pearl sourced from Japan. In this way I am reminded of Hubert Duprat's caddis fly lavae I saw at Musée des Arts Décoratifs.  In Duprat's work he replaced the insects usual material of gravel, soil and organic debris, with grains of real gold and precious jewels. These little wonders gather whatever materials are available to them and form themselves their unique protective casing. By allowing them only gold and gems the results were beautiful bejewelled capsules, bespoke to each bug's design but they were oblivious to their value in our human, consumerist world.

I hope if Bernhard Schobinger ever reads this he takes this comparison as a compliment, as I mean it to be so. The way he creates jewellery is as natural and instinctive as the tiny creature enrobing themselves in the objects they collect, unaware of any other way of life. A natural jeweller.

Bernhard Schobinger, Rings of Saturn, is curated by Jo Bloxham with Felix Flury and Christopher Thompson Royds from Gallery S O. You can view the exhibition at Manchester Gallery until 19th October (details here), and also see more amazing work by artists like Schobinger at Gallery S O, Brick Lane, London (here).

Thanks for bringing such a great artist to our hometown!

Gold: A Material Possession

The recent eye-catching display of my favourite art shop, Cornellison & Son ( a trove of amazing traditional materials, professional pigments and art supplies, estd 1855!) to accompany their array of gilding materials.

Ancient gold jewellery from Manchester Museum's Ancient World's exhibition.

"Gold-the most universal of archetypes. It's allure gleams in liturgical traditions and Pagan rituals, royal celebrations & alchemical transformations. The splendour of this precious metal has limitless visual potential. While it's use can veer dangerously close to signalling excess & kitsch, gold is nevertheless flamboyant & resplendent - a spectacle to behold. Somewhere between elegant & overpowering, it became a catalyst for creativity suggesting the transformation of a raw material into a work of art to be admired." Dries Van Noten exhibition, the Decorative Art Museum, Paris

Golden garments, at Dries Van Noten's current Paris exhibition including a beautifully embroidered antique piece.

What I like about gold is the fact that it's NATURALLY OCCURRING, which I think can be forgotten because of it's expense. Valued since it's discovery for it's beauty and rarity, it is also a material with unique properties made up from a combination of ingredients found in the universe. The desire it has created and it's limited availability means it's used as a means of expressing wealth, giving it the reputation for being showy and gaudy. But unlike a wad of paper bank notes for a man made currency, if you found a nugget of gold gleaming amidst the gravel of a muddy stream, or peeking out of a rocky wall it immediately catches the eye as something special irrespective of knowledge of it's outside "worth". Real gold is a wonderful material to work with but causes creative limitations by it's expense. I love pyrite (fool's gold) which as well as having it's own unique qualities also shares some of the appeal of the treasured material. It's natural, it sparkles, it's warm and shiny, I WANT IT on a deep level. And I can work with it creatively on my artist budget and use larger pieces to make a big impact with objects in this lovely, sunny metallic hue. Yuuuuum.

An pyrite specimen I used recently for a bespoke ring.

Hubert Duprat's beautiful jewelled insect homes I saw in the Dries Van Noten exhibition in Paris last month.

A wonderful surprise at the Dries Van Noten exhibition was the inclusion of Hubert Duprat's amazing caddis flies which I had never seen in real life before! I love the way he has used jewels and precious materials in this way, showing them as natural things. To us, we know how "expensive" they are in our society, but to the caddis lavae they are just a handy building material to make their little home.  In a similar way, the pearl is known to us as a rare find in the watery depths, romantic, elegant and precious. However, to the oyster it is a way of dealing with an annoying speck of grit so it doesn't damage it's delicate insides, a biological process.

Pearls at The Museum of London

These are animals protecting themselves in beautiful ways.

A new exhibition has also just started at The Manchester Museum, From the War of Nature. Coinciding with the commemoration of the start of World War One, the exhibition looks at " the story of predation, competition, co-operation and collaboration... (revealing) that living things resolve conflict in many, often unexpected, ways and aims to challenge the perception that war is an inevitable outcome of conflict." I say hopefully we can form a pearl of wisdom out the irritating grit that gets in our shells. :)