kakaBOOM by Paul Adie

Artist list

Paul Adie

Adie takes pleasure in playing around with codes. He understands that a language can be both rich, layered and ambiguous. Such possibilities challenge him; he takes pleasure in speaking some 7 different languages for a reason.

In recent months, he was invited to Idar-Oberstein, a town tucked away among the southern German mountains. For centuries, this place has been a mecca for mining, trading and working gemstones. Amidst all the carefully polished rose quartz and delicately coloured agate discs, Adie got a little nervous… he felt like the proverbial “bull in a china shop”. He wondered, does anything gained from nature equal beauty? Where can one find the boundary with kitsch? When is something considered fashion? What ultimately defines something as art?

Of course, a working period at such a location offers a maker unprecedented opportunities: one can lean on immense experience and seemingly unlimited facilities. Despite his sometimes somewhat boisterous constitution, the results were also remarkable: in contrast to earlier work in which text determined both the image and communication, this time the “language of jewellery” became Adie’s subject.

Of course he didn’t make neat, subtle settings; he went for pearls set in brightly coloured epoxy paste; precious stones were reduced to their colour and neatly cut stones swirled down like layers of confetti on some of his rings and brooches. These days, this kind of stones no longer needs to be hewn from the rock, they now also come spiralling in the form of bars from a Swiss laboratory; Adie’s response literally incorporated chunks of ruby and sapphire into his jewellery.
 
The disruptive use of letters and words in his jewellery – several of such pieces are in the exhibition – is not inferior to the blatant interventions Paul Adie introduces into his pieces this time round. And be assured, he is not merely concerned with the act of provoking; he is also genuinely curious about feedback from the wearers of his work. Can they still feel special, luxuriant, equally sensual, with a piece of his jewellery on the body? Would more negative reactions subsequently slow him down? This artist is far from finished exploring the codes around his medium, so should he put on the brakes? My goodness – no! As turning the rules inside out is just what delights Adie…

Translation: ADIE.

Reception on Saturday, September 13th, from 12 pm to 4 pm.