EXPO ‘Gésine HACKENBERG: Still Lifes’ – Sienna gallery, Lenox (USA) – 14 aout-12 sept. 2010
‘Still Lifes’ by Gesine Hackenberg at Sienna Gallery
Everyday objects as jewelry : Gesine Hackenberg’s latest jewelry collection, ‘Still Lifes’, is made out of table glassware that she has cut, ground, and re-purposed into brooches and necklaces.
« The source of Gésine Hackenberg’s newest work, Still Lifes, lies in her study of 17th and 18th century Dutch still life paintings and their meaning, the tables exquisitely laden with the finest tableware and food. She re-interprets this perfect translation of the three to the two-dimensional, the realistic vista of the dishes, glasses and bowls, into her work. The Still Lifes collection consists of two groups: on the one hand brooches like small sculptures, carved from stone. On the other, brooches and necklaces in which everyday glassware has been cut and rearranged into new compositions, new still lifes. The body takes on the role of the canvas as it were and becomes a tableau vivant. »
Gesine Hackenberg - brooches – Left: Finnish Still Life, Finnish table glass (by Timo Sarpaneva); cut and ground. Right: Dutch and Finnish Still Life, Dutch (recent design by Aldo Bakker) and Finnish (vintage by Kristalunie Maastricht) table glass; cut and ground
Gesine Hackenberg - Table Glass Neckpiece: Green Bottle Neckpiece. glass, silver
Gesine Hackenberg - Table Glass: Green and Blue Dutch. Dutch Table Glass (vintage by Kristalunie Maastricht); cut and ground
« All My Treasure-
Occasionally, the realm of jewellery and commodities come together very closely…
Objects we use everyday become intimately precious and indispensable to us, just as it happens to a piece of jewellery we wear day in, day out.
On the one hand there are objects that help us to master our daily lives in a purely functional way. But on the other there are those to which we feel very close, to which we are joined as it were. Maybe this is because they’ve just always been there. Or maybe our mother and grandmother already used them. It might be just a tiny detail that fascinates us, almost nothing. Sometimes they seem to embody our wishes, moods, memories, a certain goal or habit, our affiliation with a certain group?
And then again they may not be really practical at all. But still we like using them and in a very personal way they seem to belong to us like we belong to them. For such an object adapts through our specific way of handling.
We love them. They become the jewels in our daily lives.
I’m fascinated by the aspect of personal preciousness revealed in all kinds of belongings. Especially in objects that seem to find a place close and near to the body. I explore how these pieces can relate to the body and examine this relationship through its connection.
The use of these things pertains to body measurement and the wearing of jewellery is about use in daily life.
My materials of choice are precious metals, antique ceramics, glass and textiles, as well as the very tough and resistant Japanese Urushi lacquer. These all come from interlocking themes of household, kitchen, table and food culture. These materials seem to embody this fleeting commonplace culture surrounding us by preserving it.
Often my objects and jewels, ‘kleinoden ‘ (Dutch for little treasures), are primarily small, autonomous objects. Either through its use (spoons) or an intervention in the original object (ceramic jewellery), a relationship with the body is established or the object is made wearable. I want to allow the object and the jewellery to exist in both environments. » (Gésine Hackenberg)
« Still Lifes » was made possible in part by The Netherlands Foundation For Visual Arts, Design and Architecture
Sienna Gallery
80 Main Street
Lenox, MA 01240 USA
(001) 413 637 8386
info@siennagallery.com
