The dichotomic dilemma about wearable/unwearable jewellery is an exciting one.
There are quite a few designers, artists and craftspeople out there creating with the most disparate materials unique pieces that critics struggle to define jewellery as their purpose is not just ornamental or decorative, but they can often be considered as little (and at times rather large...) works of art.
The Musem of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York has collected in the last five years almost 200 exceptional pieces of "art jewellery" and a recently opened exhibition entitled "Wear It or Not" showcases some of the new additions to the permanent collection of the museum.
Organised by Ursula Ilse-Neuman, Curator of Jewelry at MAD, the event features around 130 works from all over the world, made with the most disparate techniques including digital fabrication.
Visitors will be able to discover more traditional pieces in more conventional materials such as silver, but also Luis Acosta's paper pieces, Boris Bally's brooches made with recycled traffic signs, Robert W. Ebendorf's Berlin wall brooch, Joyce Scott's figurative necklaces made with colurful glass beads, Jeremy May's literary jewels and Melanie Bilenker's pieces in which the designer employs hair to form precise and detailed etching-like drawings, while technological advanced materials are explored in pieces such as Rebecca Strzelec's Shorthand brooch made with ABS plastic and medical adhesive.
Among the most uncommon and unexpected materials there are also fruit-wrapping tissue paper and firecrackers (Verena Sieber-Fuchs' pieces), while the most impalpable inspiration remains the one behind Sakurako Shimizu's brooches.
This designer often plays around with technology making pieces that look like Atari computer chips or based on online diagrams of computer network topologies.
Shimizu's silver plated laser-cut pieces included in the "Wear It or Not" event physically represent sound waves.
The most interesting thing about art jewellery remains the fact that – as the museum page states – it goes "beyond the decorative function into new creative realms of conceptual, social and political resonance".
If you know you will miss the exhibition, don't despair: you can still explore the museum website and discover not just the unconventional jewellery exhibited, but also the designers who made them, plus a glossary of materials and techniques employed to make 400 items that are part of the museum collection. Truly MAD, isnt it?
Wear It or Not: Recent Jewelry Acquisitions, MAD, 2 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10019, until 2nd June 2013
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