DESIGN:Gems and Ladders
GEMS AND LADDERS is a Swiss-based company, which showcases collections of fine jewelry created in collaboration with contemporary artists and revives the long tradition of artists’ jewelry. The artists are invited to create one-of-a-kind pieces with jewelry designers with a variety of materials, which intends to challenge the boundaries of creativity, design, fashion, and art.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: GEMS AND LADDERS Archive
Forty pieces of jewelry works by other internationally renowned contemporary artists, are on presentation at the Design Museum in London, among them is a new series conceived and designed Tobias Rehberger also on presentation are works by: Carol Bove, Claudia Comte, Alighiero e Boetti, Jean Dubuffet, Liam Gillick, Martin Boyce, Meret Oppenheim and Lawrence Weiner. Themes of authorship, collaboration and the visible and invisible are key themes in Tobias Rehberger’s work. His series features three rings entitled “YES”, “NO” and “MAYBE”, made of: gold, silver or bronze, which the artist has covered with a layer of paint reminiscent of plastic, the precious metals only appear, if at all, through wear and tear, or on the inside of the rings, where the words are engraved. With her “Untitled” earrings, Carol Bove recreates the four light fittings that hang outside the David H. Koch Theater in New York. The building was originally called the New York State Theater; it was built as part of New York State’s participation in the 1964-65 World’s Fair. The building’s architect was Philip Johnson, who united neoclassicism and modernism and was famously inspired by Mies van der Rohe. Martin Boyce first engaged in 2005 with the Arbres Cubiste designed by Jan and Joël Martel. Boyce used and referenced the forms of the Martel trees repeatedly over the past decade, extending their lineage to the present day. For the gold chain “Imagine Sunlight on Closed Eyelids Through a Canopy of Leaves (for S)” the artist outlines of the concrete tree and makes an irregular pattern in an elegant design that quietly references its complex origins. Lawrence Weiner is historically regarded as one of the pioneering practitioners of Conceptual Art. From 1968 onwards, the artist has presented his work using language. Lawrence Weiner created “Human rights Adornment” and part of the proceeds goes directly to this non-profit institution. Thomas Hirschhorn’s direct approach, reflected as much in the materials he builds with as in his practice of exposing audiences to texts he finds meaningful, is summed up in some of his guidelines, such as: “Energy = Yes! Quality = No”, “Friendship between Art and Philosophy” and “:Form- and Forcefield: Love, Philosophy, Aesthetics, Politics”. His “Ideological Jewellery” is an affirmation of those terms. Hirschhorn has designed three circular, stained birch wood medallions on wooden chains, into which are carved those mottos. The collection is available at the GEMS AND LADDERS online store as well as at selected Museum shops worldwide.
Info: Design Museum, 224-238 Kensington High Street, Kensington, London, Duration: 22-23/11/17, Hours: 10:00-18:00, https://designmuseum.org
