Assembly by Svenja John

Artist list

Svenja John

Gallery Funaki is pleased to welcome German artist Svenja John back to Melbourne for her latest exhibition, Assembly.

Svenja John has developed a worldwide reputation for her colourful and extraordinarily detailed jewellery and objects, using Makrolon™. Makrolon™, a polymer used in the production of CDs, eyewear and solar panels, has been Svenja’s signature material since 1992.

The making of each Svenja John piece is a painstaking process: initial ideas are sketched on paper and by constructing paper models. Next, computer aided design (CAD) refines and configures these ideas into workable objects. Every small element is precisely configured within the whole, while still on screen, after which each small element is cut using precision water-jet cutters. Svenja then colours each piece by hand, using permanent dyes in a huge range of colour palettes. The elements are then connected together to form the final object. Svenja says of her making process, “I try to create a perfect symbiosis of art, technological perfection and manual work.”

Known for its vibrancy, its robustness and its complex, architectonic structures, Svenja’s works are replete with their own logic, reminiscent of the internally driven, perfectly adapted systems of plants. Like the simplest building blocks of nature giving rise to infinite variation, Svenja’s dedicated use of Makrolon™ has allowed a sustained, rigorous investigation into form, colour, space, translucency, surface and movement over the past 20 years. Each piece naturally inspires and feeds into the next, and there is a distinct evolution and increasing complexity evident in her work.

There seems to be no end to Svenja’s ability to innovate and create new forms: “while our daily lives are becoming increasingly virtual, working with our hands means returning to what’s real. Experiencing the materials of this world with our senses… stimulates our attention and inspires our imagination; we have to improvise and combine. It is while snipping vegetables that we create something new, not while reading cookery books.” Through her label Xemaroo, Svenja also recently developed a range of products related to her jewellery but exploring new design territory: silk and cotton scarves, objects and hanging mobiles, which take her aesthetic philosophy and extend it into new areas. Gallery Funaki will show a selection of these products as part of the Assembly exhibition.

Svenja John has won the Herbert Hofmann Prize (Munich, 2004), the Bayerscher Staatspreis (Munich, 2000 and 2007) and her work is held in public collections such as the National Gallery of Australia, Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim, Danner Stiftung, Munich and the Mint Museum of Craft and Design, New York. She has run her own atelier in Berlin since 1994.