Jess Dare: The Nature of Memory – Jewellery & Objects

Artist list

Jess Dare

Jess Dare’s exhibition, ‘The Nature of Memory’ explores the fragility of memory through a series of delicate glass plant specimens. Her interest in our innate human desire to preserve the natural world is realized throughought this series of miniatures and wearable objects. “In this exhibition I aim to express the ephemeral nature of memory through the fragility of glass and nature itself.”

Dare’s work references the idea that life, like memory is fleeting and fragile. She laments that the beauty and detail is often compromised when trying to replicate the intricacies of natural forms, with the exception of the Blaschka’s hyper-realistic glass models in The Natural History Museum at Harvard University. These exceptional pieces of glasswork have strongly influenced Jess Dare’s practice to date and she feels a connection within this current series to the documentary detail of these botanical models.

The series itself is composed of objects and wearable items, miniature glass succulent forms that are silicon moulded and cast in silver; transforming the delicate, fragile glass with its lustrous colour into sturdy, cold and almost lifeless silver replicas. Jess Dare explores the botany of the mind, accentuating the transience of memory through her intricate and fantastical miniatures.