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"Every passion borders on the chaotic"-- Walter Benjamin When
Marbeth generously asked me to write an article about myself for ModernSilver
Magazine, I instantly got cold feet. Yes, I'm a jeweler. But as someone without
formal training, a posh art degree, a long list of exhibitions, or other
concrete manifestations of what it means to be an "artist," I have always felt
ill-at-ease in attempting to put tangible words to my jewelry in the form of an
artist's statement or something like that. Does anyone really care whether my
jewelry references architectural forms or modernist art? Does it matter that I
chafe against the distinction, inaugurated by Giorgio Vasari in the sixteenth
century, that a "craft" like jewelry does not constitute an
"art" like
painting? Is it relevant that I
consider art (or craft) a political activity? Or how long I've practiced it? Or
where? Or how? |
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Most
artist's statements hinge on questions like this. And no doubt they are useful
and interesting, conforming, as they do, to established notions of how we talk
about "art" and "aesthetics." They shed light on influences, place a
person's
work within the larger historical context of the practice of art, and sometimes
reveal a personal philosophy towards one's own aesthetic praxis. |
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So
why not write one like this? Because
I think they miss the point. For me, the issue in art is not only how
someone expresses his or her interests through an art form, but rather perhaps why,
if such a thing can be
divined. |
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Sterling Silver and Gemstone Rings, 2003 |
Although
I have been in love with the idea of jewelry since childhood, I came upon it as
a vocation much later in life, after more than ten years of being steeped in
academia and teaching, earning a Ph.D. in the process. My approach to thinking
about jewelry is, therefore, of necessity, philosophical--the vocabulary I
inhabit and love. And as someone whose academic work has hinged on issues of
identity, representation, and ontology--that is, being--it's impossible for
me to think about jewelry as an object/field divorced from overriding cultural
concepts. So with jewelry, as a functional object of personal adornment, the how
of its creation is even less relevant than the why.
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As
an object of passion, jewelry is therefore potent and powerful to me--it's a
concrete manifestation of a person’s self-fashioned image he or she projects
onto the world. It functions, therefore, sort of like a fetish, one of the words
I've chosen for the tagline of my commercial collections. The classic
definition of a fetish has nothing to do with the whips-and-chains version
promulgated by popular culture.
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Rather, a fetish is simply an object which has almost supernatural power for its owner, and possibly power over other people as well. Adopted by Marx, and later by Freud to mean an object which acts a substitute for a beloved thing that may have been lost (or perhaps never existed in the first place), a fetish is perhaps best summed up by French philosopher Michel Leiris, who calls it an "objectified form of our desire."
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Sterling Silver Coliseum Rings, 2003 |
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To me, it's easy to see how this notion can be applied to jewelry, clothing, shoes, makeup, hair, or any other components of personal style. The earrings a woman chooses to wear reveal much about her desire--not only the look she's going for, but the way in which she approaches it, and her relationship to the objects themselves. She bought the earrings to reflect her personal style: as such, the earrings "spoke" to her, they had sort of power over her, and compelled her to purchase them (or perhaps compelled someone to give them to her). |
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Kinetic Sterling Silver Neckpiece with Tiger Eye, 2002-2003 |
Additionally,
many people have a lucky shirt or something like that, an item they have
invested with power and which reminds them of something good. This item means
something different for each person: it may have been worn when a significant
event happened, like the night of a marriage proposal, or the day of a
longed-for promotion, or when a child was born: the particulars of the event and
the way the item became important do not matter; what's important is that the
shirt or earrings or pendant or shoes became powerful to their wearer as a
result of their involvement with the event. And as such, that item conjures the
positive feelings associated with the original event.
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So
jewelry, as a manifestation of personal expression and possibly a link to
significant emotional states, is magical: as an object which reveals something
about its wearer, it has the power change a person's look, and, therefore, a
bit of him/herself. That's the totemic power of adornment--it has the
potentiality to alter ontology, that is, one's being. |
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| Interestingly, the recent filmic adaptation of J. S. S. Tolkien's 1930s masterpiece Lord of the Rings speaks to some of these issues, revealing, as it does, the power a simple piece of jewelry can wield over those who come in contact with it. The ring--conceived as a relatively benign wedding band style in the films-- not only holds sway over many of the characters in the film, but also changes them in profound, unmistakable ways. |
Sterling Silver Pierced Ring with Crystal, 2002
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| Even more interesting, perhaps, is the way
in which the films birthed an interest in jewelry for people who, perhaps
traditionally, would have no such interest. An anecdotal example: one of my
students made a ring for her 11-year-old son. At first he shunned it, perhaps on
grounds that it was an inherently feminine thing. However, he soon warmed to it,
telling his mother that he was going to wear it around his neck "like in Lord
of the Rings." It might be easy to write this as merely an example of a
child mirroring the pop culture forms around him and wanting to conform to that
trilogy's notion of what constitutes a hero--but one could also see it as a
recognition of the power of a ring to compel its owner to wear it, crafted, as
it was, with love by a person loved by the recipient. |
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| Tolkien
wrote Lord of the Rings sequestered
in Northern England during a time of incredible political and social upheaval.
With the horrors of World War I in the background and fascism and Nazism looming
in the future, Tolkien’s imaginative universe cannot be thought outside of its
historical context, meaning, as a political allegory of crisis and hope. I think
it bears consideration that the recent filmic adaptation of these novels created
a fervor, indeed devotion, in the American public at this particular historical
moment. And at the center of the epic story is a simple, but magical, ring. |
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Org.anik Sterling Silver Body Jewelry, 2003 |
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| I work primarily in sterling silver, and my designs oscillate rather bizarrely between organic and highly regimented forms. I crave precision and like to exploit the almost anti-human quality of machine parts like gears in some designs. Some of this has to do with my love of cars and motorcycles - the aesthetics of the engine. I’m particularly interested in machine and architectonic shapes, evinced in the 2003 Speedloader series, for example. |
Sterling Silver and Hematite Speedloader Ring, 2003 |
Sterling Silver and Hematite Spike Set, 2003
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 Sterling Silver and Hematite Speedloader Choker, 2003 |
The
designs are based on a device which allows one to load a revolver with ease, and
uses hematite spikes in the series as bullets. They both beckon and affront the
viewer. However, precision also gives me a headache at times! It’s then that I
turn to forged, biomorphic forms for a relief. |
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My
jewelry has been influenced, also, in ways that I have yet to be able to
articulate, by years of study of literature and critical theory, and is driven
by the persistent pull to create unusual objects of beauty which may, in some
small way, transform those who wear them. I'm less concerned with the utilities
of wearability, how we define what is contemporary and fashionable, and the
notion of what constitutes “pretty,” than I am with creating powerful pieces
with great presence, "statement" pieces, if you like, which cannot go
unnoticed. True fashion is self-fashion--being true to oneself despite the
prevailing aesthetics of the time, and I like to think my jewelry is about the
magic of individualism and transformative power of style. |
Org.anik Sterling Silver Choker, 1999 |
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Victoria lives in New York City with her husband. She teaches jewelry making at School of Visual Arts, and English at Long Island University. In January 2000, she launched modvictoria.com, her website for modernist jewelry www.modvictoria.com, and, in September 2003, her original jewelry lines at www.victoriatillotson.com |
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Article by Victoria Tillotson Your
comments are invited.
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