The Jewellery Department of St Lucas University College of Art & Design Antwerp exhibit at Interieur Extra, Biennal

Review Glue/Glossy at Interieur Extra, Biennale Interieur 2012, Kortrijk

In 2012, the renowned Belgian interior-design biennial Interieur moved beyond the Kortrijk Xpo fairgrounds to the city’s Buda Island. Under the name of Interieur Extra, the avant-garde of contemporary creative design was given the chance to express itself through installations, pop-up presentations, exhibitions and workshops. In this setting, the St Lucas University College of Art and Design Antwerp, Jewellery Design | Silversmithing department, took part with the guerrilla action Glue/Glossy, as part of their research project ‘UnScene: Jewellery and Presentation’.

The students and lecturers of SLA held their guerrilla action ‘Glue/Glossy’ at the entrance to the Buda Factory, the most creative and hands-on hot spot on Buda Island. A square-shaped pillar-like mobile kiosk displaying various magazines formed the physical base of Glue/Glossy. At first sight it looks like a regular kiosk, selling a large assortment of magazines. However, a significant difference soon appears, as the sign on top says: ‘Jewellery for sale’. From up close, the people on the magazine covers (Glossy) have been enhanced with various-sized images of contemporary jewellery by SLA students in the form of stickers (Glue). Whilst showing the inside of the altered magazines, some of those students and lecturers explained to visitors what the intention of the enhancement was, i.e., the incorporation of art jewellery into the daily life of the design-loving audience. Interested visitors could purchase the enhanced magazine at a symbolic price. Thanks to this guerrilla action, each sympathizing visitor to the Buda Factory could take home an array of images of the students’ jewellery, along with their motive.

Clearly different from a standard art-jewellery presentation, the resourcefulness that went into Glue/Glossy was emphasized by its 2D character and active concept of the exhibition. Instead of presenting one-off individual artworks by SLA students, images of their art jewellery were homogenized thanks to their corresponding size and transformed into 2D multiples. By daringly glueing these images onto pictures already dispersed in the public domain via glossy magazines, their visual context was altered extensively, thereby lowering the threshold of the depicted student jewellery and bringing it into everyday life. To furthermore ease accessibility towards art jewellery, those altered magazines were presented casually in the mobile kiosk. The familiarity of such a display, combined with the willing demonstration by SLA students and lecturers, appealed to the visitors of the Buda Factory. The prompt purchase of a copy of an ‘art-jewellery embellished’ magazine by the public demonstrated the success of the forward approach and completed this guerrilla action by the SLA students and lecturers.

The guerrilla action Glue/Glossy thus efficiently raised awareness of art jewellery among design-loving people. It allowed the lecturers and students of SLA to reach the (design-loving) visitors of the Buda Factory, and not only briefly present their work, but also evoke prolonged exposure through trade. With this process they created an opportunity to immerse the entire public into the world of art jewellery, as those visitors will pass it onto others, whether intentionally or not.