Claire McArdle: Gilty

Artist list

Claire McArdle

The work is a series of gilt neckpieces displayed vertically, as when worn, around the gallery. A layer of gold covers the geometric patterning of the beads disguising their materiality.
Is the glittering gold a deception or is it a truth? Come and decide for yourself if the work is guilty for being gilty.

Gilty: an exhibition of contemporary jewellery by Claire McArdle
If an illusion deceives your perception does it make the first understanding invalid? Does a gilt object betray us in some way or does it possess a truth of its own? A skin of gold matches the contours of the bead in precise detail. It masks the underlying material of the piece which makes up 99% of its volume and 0% of its surface. How do you value the piece?
Is this piece pretending to be something else or is it exactly what it is and we have deceived ourselves with visual assumptions?
If you know the the chain carrying the beads, the chain which is almost fully covered, is made of 18ct gold, how do you value the piece now?
Is this a truth wrapped in a deception? Or is it just a piece to be perceived with available knowledge and accepted for its form and known materiality?
Is this work guilty for being gilty? 


Claire McArdle is an emerging Melbourne-based artist who has exhibited her work both nationally and internationally in The Netherlands, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Germany and the USA. As well as solo shows in Melbourne and Sydney. She recently completed a residency at RMIT University and received the Art Start Grant from the Australia Council for the Arts.