[Jewelry making - Article 00392] - Re: [Orchid] Metalsmith's Exhibition in Print

[Karen Christians]

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    Wow.  This is great.  Finally some good discourse on art, jewelry,
    critique and pushing boundaries. 

    There is another form of  art which parallels jewelry in both camps
    - the wearable and unwearable.  Look at fashion.  Each Spring in
    Paris, fashion designers trot out their creations with skinny models
    doing the "walk".  Often the outfits are outlandish, barely
    unwearable, and use untraditional materials like plastic or even
    metal.  It is that boundary pushing which is later extrapolated into
    prete-a-porte (ready to wear).  The same happens to jewelry.  New
    materials, new combinations like mokume-gane, reticulation,
    bi-metal, keum boo, rubber, etc., all add to new and innovative
    jewelry combinations. 

    In my years of working for the Harvard Bio Labs, my lab, like
    everyone's research survived on government grants.  For several
    years, outcries from bureaucrats complained that the research we
    were doing, circadian rhythm studies, had no real practical
    applications, and therefore, pure research should be disbanded. 
    Unless the research had proven conclusions, like drug research, no
    money should be spent.  From this pure research came Seasonal
    Affective Disorder and understanding issues of sleep apnea, a
    syndrome that afflicts me. 

    My point of this, is, that we look at all aspects of jewelry,
    metalsmithing, art, adornment, embellishment, like fashion, or pure
    scientific research, it is important to look at all of it with an
    open mind.  Dadaism, Surrealism, abstract art, Cubism, etc. were
    publicly criticized.  I couldn't think of a world of art without the
    work of Brach, Picasso, Dali and DuChamp.  Why should jewelry be
    different?  I am glad to see artists taking chances and bending the
    rules.  I am glad there are publications like Metalsmith to
    represent rule breaking, and equally glad to see magazines like
    Jewelry Connoisseur which celebrates embellishment. 

    I for one refuse to live in a world where mediocrity rules. 

Thanks for letting me rant.

Karen Christians
M E T A L W E R X
50 Guinan St.
Waltham, MA  02451
Ph. 781/891-3854 Fax 3857
http://www.metalwerx.com/
Jewelry/Metalarts School & Cooperative Studio

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