Intimacy
SIERAAD ART FAIR, the annual international Art Fair for jewellery designers
will be held in the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam from 6 thru 9 November 2008.
SIERAAD is an international fair for contemporary jewellery designers and silver design.
It is the only large-scale platform where an international assembly of makers of artistically high-quality silverware and contemporary high-profile jewellery art, visitors, connoisseurs and collectors meet and do business. This year as well a contest will be organized under the heading NEW TRADITIONAL JEWELLERY, its theme being: INTIMACY
New Traditional Jewellery 2008: international design contest and exhibition
The technical jury of New Traditional Jewellery (NTJ) has selected the theme “Intimacy” for the 2008 design contest and exhibition.
In 2006 the theme of our contest was: ‘a new vision of historical ornaments that are part of traditional costumes’.
In 2007 the theme was: ‘Symbols of Faith’, a socially relevant theme all over the world, in which jewellery artists were invited and challenged to give shape to their visions of individual faith and/or institutionalized religions.
This year, in 2008, the jury has opted for a theme that is, once again, a highly personal one: ‘Intimacy’.
Intimacy and jewellery design have, for centuries, been inextricably bound up with each other.
• Wearing a piece of jewellery on the bare skin may be a gesture of intimacy in itself.
• Intimacy may be found in the styling of the ornament.
• The material chosen may be intimate; after all, some mineral and organic gemstones have
explicitly intimate and even erotic significance.
• Intimacy may be found in the historical starting point of/inspiration for the ornament.
• Intimacy may be found in the spot where the ornament is worn.
• An ornament is not always visible, but it is tangible and present.
To the jury, intimacy stands for affectionate, intimate, confidential and mysterious.
As previous contests had the themes mentioned above, the themes of mourning, loss and death will be outside the scope of the 2008 contest.
Eroticism and sexuality, however, will be within the scope of the 2008 theme.
For entries for Intimacy, New Traditional Jewellery 2008’ the following conditions should be met:
• The ornament should be wearable
• It should be based on a source of inspiration in the tradition of the ornament
• There should be an explanation of the underlying idea, a photograph of the source of
inspiration, as well as an account of the process of arriving at the new ornament
• The ornament should add a new chapter to an ancient story.
• The preconditions of this contest (new shapes that originate from existing, threatened
and/or lost traditions) do not mean that a figuration is called for. On the contrary, the jury
would like to emphasize that the inspiration, so not necessarily the interpretation, should be
retraceable to a past.
• The terms and conditions of submitting an entry should be complied with.
Although the technical jury gives a number of examples of historical backgrounds to intimate jewellery they want to stress that the examples given are not representative of their expectations.
In the discussions the members of the technical jury have had among themselves about the potential wealth of the subject ‘Intimacy’ as theme for NTJ 2008, a number of aspects came to the fore, such as: chastity-belts, friendship rings, piercings, inscriptions, locket shapes and ornaments made of human hair; the ancient Japanese tradition of inro, netsuke and ojimé; doubled-sided Indian necklaces and pendants of the maharajahs; the silk worn on the skin contained precious illustrations and texts; the ‘love letters’ (beadwork brooches and pendants in code) of the South African Xhosa and Zulu.
The history of the ornament is brimful of all kinds of wearable small containers (both in rings and on chains) for personally precious notes and suchlike. Ornaments by way of underwear, or underwear by way of ornaments. Penis gourds belong in this list, as well as antique gentlemen’s fob watches with hidden erotic pictures.
The technical jury advises contestants to visit museums and to consult reference books. Immerse yourselves in the past and come up with something new!! SURPRISE US!!
On behalf of the jury, the executive committee of the jury and NTJ would like to wish all the contestants a lot of inspiration and success.
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Photos: Francis Willemstijn |
