Mary Curtis - Objects

Blog Qustion: Explore the relationship between function and decoration in the works of Mary Curtis with relation to her process, and the presentation in exhibition: Meta - decorative.

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This week we are looking at objects with our lecturer Mary Curtis, who is also a well known contemporary New Zealand jeweller. I am personally not very familiar working with 3D objects, so Mary's talk was very interesting for me.

Every artist gather inspirations to work into their art, and Mary is a collector herself. She collects everything that holds interest to her, mostly everyday household objects. Sometimes it could be things that most of us would consider as rubbish, she would see the beauty and potential in it's form to become a piece of jewellery.

Like this champagne bottle cage she found at a wedding is now a pendant.

http://www.fingers.co.nz/exhibitors/curtis_ex04.htm

I really liked the slide of the collection called 'An inordinate fondness of beetles'

This is a collection display at Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

The sight of a beetle usually make me cringe, however this display brings out the beauty in the insects, the colors and the shine of their bodies is almost jewel like. The shine illuminates each individual beetle, as in Mary's words 'the light on the objects bounces off eachother...'

This made me realise that although building a collection does not require any construction of skills, is the most important part of making art, as it is the source of inspiration. Collecting lets you see things in a different way which brings out the visual elements of the object, that you may have never realised before.

Mary then moved on talking about Function vs Decoration in terms of objects, which is the central

In the slide picture of the painting of Queen Elizabeth I which is all about the notion of display. The intense style decorative fashion in the era of the painting restrains comfortable physical movement, therefore it's not practicle, but it is a display of beauty and wealth.

This concept inspired Mary with her works greatly. Many of Mary's works are made from everyday consumables, however turning them into jewels. I really like the use of materials in her jewelleries shown at Meta-Decoration. The print of the wallpapers are very victorian styled. At the same time wallpapers holds the connotation of being a form of decoration, Mary use it to decorate one's body. However unlike the traditional way of decorating the body, where only the rich can afford, Mary's jewelleries are made of inexpenssive modern house-hold materials.

My favourite piece of work from Meta-Decoration is the Green Blanket necklace.

She showed us photos she took of the forever changing workspace of hers while she stayed at Munich.
It is very interesting to see the photos because it shows a process of thinking and trials, the blanket pieces are constantly being moved around and repositioned.

For Mary this is the equivilant of concept drawing.

It is very important because this is the step where she had to deal the function side of the decoration. During which, she had to figure out how would this piece be worn on a body, how the body will be changed by this piece of decoration.

I am personally not familiar with Jewellery making, so it is very intriquing for me to see this experimental thinking stages that deal with function physically.

While looking at Mary's design style of the Green blanket necklace reminds me one of my favourite jewellery designer Tina Tarnoff.

Tarnoff is well known for her use of printed paperart in her jewelleries.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/tinatarnoff?page=3

When we went to Meta-Decoration, i understood why Mary was very stressed over how things are displayed. Every piece of Mary's works were displayed in a glass case, hanging from very thin hanging structures. I think it was very effective because the works are positioned up-right at eye-level height, as i stand infront of the works i can picture how it would look on a body.

I found Mary's talk very helpful. Working with 3D objects is not my strong area, however I am very keen on learning jewellery making. From this lecture i am interested in trying new ways of constructing ideas to make art, i like the idea of making a 3D 'drawing'.