Jivan Astfalck: Love Zoo

Artist list

Jivan Astflack

“Drawing on historical and autobiographical material, fiction and fairy tales, I make jewellery objects in order to tell hybrid, fantastical stories. The dynamic relationship that body-related objects have with theory and literature helps me to develop the narrative of a piece. But I also understand my objects as mnemonic devices, triggering memories and associations. In this way, I hope, they open up to the wearer or viewer and invite their own contribution to be added to the existing layers of references.

In LOVE ZOO I explore this dynamic by placing ‘made-again’ pieces of traditional jewellery onto early 1960s Steiff animals. The jewellery has been made specially to suit the character of the soft toy animals, which have been collected over three years and had at least two previous owners. These animals have been chosen because they are exquisitely made, have ‘collectors value’ in their own right and refer to the autobiographical aspect of the work. Their cute pre-Disney nostalgic quality replaces the traditional display prop and re-configures the objects, offering reflection on the sentimental, emotional investment jewellery and transitional love objects share.

Funny, yet suggestive of more serious issues like the myth of childhood and the pains of growing up, these objects are sites of memory and fiction, history and thought, visible traces providing connections with the invisible and imagined in a complex web of relationships. My pieces mean to reach beyond adornment, addressing the way in which we deal with the humble and naive, such as these found ready-mades, previously rejected and rescued from attics and other ‘dark’ places. I like to rethink our ideas of tradition in jewellery and the status of objects in a way that allows us to perceive the old and tired clichés in a new way, full of possibilities.”