CODA Paper Art 2013
Art and jewellery made of and on paper
Paper is a fantastic material that has inspired artists and designers to create works of art for centuries. To follow up the successful Holland Papier Biënnale, which CODA Museum organised in cooperation with Museum Rijswijk, CODA Museum will exhibit the works of no less than 21 visual artists and 16 jewellery designers from both the Netherlands and abroad.
The artists whose work will be shown in CODA Paper Art do not limit themselves to working solely with paper. Visual artists and jewellery designers who have worked with paper occasionally or even just once will be included in the exhibition as well.
Reusing paper and cardboard often goes hand in hand with the development of new techniques. A unique example is KrantHout, produced by designer label Vij5 and Mieke Meijer. KrantHout is a material that turns old newspapers into wood again. The old newspapers undergo several processes that convert it into a hard, wood-like substance that has many similarities with unfinished wood and can be used and treated the same way.
Exhibiting jewellery designers: Attai Chen — Ana Hagopian — Lydia Hirte — Mari Ishikawa — Tia Kramer — Nel Linssen — Hannah van Lith — Jorge Manilla — Alix Manon — Maureen Ngoc — Shari Pierce — Mette Saabye — Flora Vagi — Nhat Vu Dang — Bronia Sawyer — Tatiana Warenichova.
![Lydia Hirte Pendant: Wearable sculpture 2013 Fine drawing card, coloured with calligraphic ink, glazed (with UV absorber), pearl silk]](http://media-cache-ak2.pinimg.com/736x/e4/22/43/e42243b2140b99414683bc13587c0c59.jpg)
Lydia Hirte Pendant: Wearable sculpture 2013 Fine drawing card, coloured with calligraphic ink, glazed (with UV absorber), pearl silk
Lydia Hirte PendantThe pendants created by the German jewellery designer Lydia Hirte (1960) look deceptively simple. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. Hirte works with thin paperboard from which she cuts flat strips. Moving the strips a certain way with her hands creates a tension. Nothing is stapled or glued together.
Hirte: “With my hands I guide the power and the resistance of the material so I can shape it, creating new shapes and movements.”
The cardboard basic shapes of these pendants are cut out by hand. Angles and sides are coloured with ink. A layer of varnish gives a special shine.
Lydia Hirte studied at the University of Pforzheim.
The jewellery is surprisingly light when handled, and every jewel has its own surprise element. A pendant releases a stream of confetti when you pull a handle, or a coloured segment of a bracelet lights up when you put it on. Nhat-Vu Dang hopes to bring people closer together with this playful element.
Attai Chen – cardboard
Attai Chen (1979) works with cardboard, which he tears or cuts into small pieces and then turns into a three-dimensional jewel. The work Chen creates this way can be completely different from the initial drawing he made for that particular design.
The shape of the object is not planned. Chen does know what he wants to make; a brooch, necklace or ring, and he pays a lot of attention to how the jewel will be attached, and to its wearability. The collection compounding fractions is a series made of recycled paper.
Chen: “I am fascinated by nature and the cyclical motion of growth, decay and new beginnings. Recycling is simply a matter of repeating that process. From decay – waste – I make a new object. I try to capture the beauty of the waste material in a new form.”
Attai Chen attended the Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. He graduated as ‘Meisterschüler’ under the supervision of Otto Künzli in Munich.
Ana Hagopian
Ana Hagopian has been making paper jewellery since 1994. Her jewels are inspired by the shapes and colours of exotic fruits and special plants she has encountered on her travels. Hagopian plays with the texture and qualities of both the original fruits or plants and those of paper. She cuts and pastes until a new shape emerges.
Hagopian: “Paper is tricky, sometimes even provoking, because it is not everlasting. On the other hand it is a simple and straightforward material. This makes it very interesting.”
Ana Hagopian attended the University of Buenos Aires (fine arts and interior design). She has been living in Spain since 1982.
Tia Kramer (USA)
Tia Kramer describes herself as an ‘installation, sound, and jewellery artist’. Her jewellery designs are made of handcrafted paper that Kramer makes from the Philippine banana plant.
She makes wire constructions, without soldering, and covers them with this paper. The wearer’s movements create lively sculptures. Kramer’s jewellery resulted from a request to create a three-dimensional miniature model of a large sculpture that was to be placed on the campus of Macalester College in 2003.
Mari Ishikawa’s (1964) draws inspiration from the traditions and customs of her native country for the design of her jewellery. Relationships, ‘en’ in Japanese, are a recurring theme. It can be the relationship between form and material, but also the relationship between thoughts and surroundings or between emotions and material. In addition, Ishikawa-Vetter often uses the colour red.
In Japanese culture, red refers to the sunset, temples and holy places, ceremonies and the bond between two people. When the Japanese describe people in love they often use the expression ‘they are connected by a red ribbon’.
The use of paper as a basic material is also a clear reference to Japan. Ishikawa-Vetter uses Japanese kozo paper and Japanese lacquer combined with silver and pearls. When the work is finished, it often looks like jewellery with lace, buttons and wire constructions.
Hannah van Lith (BE). “I aim to find a balance between simplicity and dynamics in my designs.” Mémoires des vacances (2010) is an example of said simplicity and dynamics. The folding technique and materials Van Lith used in this work reflect the journeys she has made and the map that guided her. This way, the inside of the brooch becomes a globe.
Hannah van Lith is currently taking her master’s degree at the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp.
Tatiana Warenichová | Slovakia
Tatiana Warenichová - In the collection ‘Fairy Teller’, Warenichová tries to combine the right colour combinations of the fashion season in a brooch, thereby giving the spirit of that season its due.
Warenichová sets herself the challenge of combining techniques; joining together layers of paper, glued to wood or board and finished with silver. The motifs of her brooches are derived from well-known Slovakian fairy tales. Warenichová tries to capture the highlights of each of these stories in her objects.Tatiana Warenichová studied at the Academy for Fine Arts in Antwerp, where she gained her master’s degree in 2010. She lives and works in Bratislava.
Flóra Vági’s (1978) main sources of inspiration are organic shapes and materials. She worked with exotic types of wood for a long time but finally decided to focus on paper as her basic material. Paper’s unlimited potential gave her work a new dimension.
Vági: “The material I use says something about how I see the world. Once I have shaped the paper into a jewel, it can be returned to the world but just a bit different from the material that came to me originally.”
The brooch Ala Pervinca combines the pages of a book in a new shape with gold leaf and acrylic paint. Vági won the World Craft Council Award with this brooch in 2012.
Flóra Vági graduated from the Royal College of Art in London in 2008 but had already won the Marzee Prize in 2004, awarded by the Marzee gallery in Nijmegen. Vági’s work has been exhibited throughout Europe. She also gives (guest) lectures
Mette Saabye (1969) is known in Denmark and abroad as one of the most innovative and experimental jewellery designers. Although she puts together collections sporadically, she usually creates one-offs that may or may not be tailored to specific people.
Saabye uses both expensive and cheap (waste) materials but mostly allows herself to be inspired by whatever is available. Gold rings decorated with buttons from grandmother’s button box are not an unusual combination. Paper is also a material she likes to incorporate in her jewellery.
Saabye feels it is important that the object is interesting on multiple levels. In addition to a sound theoretical basis, the jewel should have decorative qualities.Mette Saabye has won several prizes, including the St. Loye Prisen, a prize awarded by Copenhagen’s Goldsmith Guild to support young talent. She opened her own gallery and studio in Copenhagen in 2005.
Alix Manon (BE) brooch – For the brooch and pendant that will be shown during CODA Paper Art 2013, Manon used recycled paper, which she treated with paint and ink. By piling up shapes, she creates a new image. Alix Manon attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. She also studied at the Academy SAIMAA University of Applied Sciences in Imatra (Finland) for a year in order to familiarise herself with the use of various techniques & the simplicity of Northern European design.
Shari Pierce (1973) is mainly inspired by the objects she encounters on the street in everyday life. She takes photos of everything she sees. This can result in seemingly random images of piles of cardboard boxes by the side of the road, protest marches or dilapidated sheds.
She takes the material she finds on the street with her and incorporates it into her jewellery designs. These pieces of jewellery are either fragile or monumental compared to the photographic images, which capture the material in a broader context.
Pierce combines the materials she finds on the street with precious metals, giving her jewellery a new shape and meaning.
Nel Linssen (1935) has been creating jewellery and objects made of paper for over thirty years. Her work can be found in museum collections all over the world.
Linssen’s work has its very own imagery, which is very distinct. Linssen: “My work develops intuitively and based on an empirical approach. I am on a continual search for logical constructions that are inspired by rhythms and structures in the botanical world. Paper as a basic material was an obvious choice for me because it possesses many qualities that are very useful to me.”
Maureen Ngoc | VietnamMaureen Ngoc (1989) recently graduated from the London College of Fashion with My Ngoc; a collection of jewellery and fashion accessories made of paper. This exceptional collection shows that contemporary jewellery is often a fusion of ancient traditions and modern techniques.
Ngoc based the collection on three-dimensional patterns and traditional origami techniques. The result is a collection of conceptual jewellery that is not only designed to be decorative but can also be seen as body armour.
Ngoc drew inspiration from the shape of bird feathers when designing My Ngoc. The jewels are made of thousands of folded sheets of paper and follow the wearer’s movements. These movements constantly result in new shapes and three-dimensional patterns. The collection was photographed in black and white by Tho Vu.
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Noon Passama
Nhat-Vu-Dang
Nhat-Vu-Dang
Despo Sophocleous
Benedikt Fischer
