Ralph Bakker: A Retrospective

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Ralph Bakker

A retrospective is a gift.
With great satisfaction and pleasure, I can look with hindsight at the development of my work. Seeing my student period alongside the most recently constructed brooches, I realize that these early pieces are not as distant as I would have thought.
The professional signature grows and shapes itself to form its own clarity.
Seeing and feeling all these pieces together, I have the distinct impression that priorities are shifting.
Confronted with these earlier pieces, the potential of seemingly dormant ideas presents itself; and upon new examination, stimulates a desire to develop and go further into detail.
Here are my archives, my thoughts in shape and form.
Moreover, just like one’s thought-concepts, the work-concept once again demands attention; luckily, the work is not yet finished.

Those who own my work have a strong relationship with these jewelry pieces. Because of this, they often have difficulty being away from them. The persuasion techniques needed in convincing some to loan their pieces for this exposition bears witness to that fact.

My work needs to be worn and whoever is wearing the piece in turn gives meaning to the work. Jewelry becomes an intricate part of one’s own intimate mythology. How then, can they still be mine?

I want to seduce with my jewelry, my work is seduction; and when the seduction is achieved, the seduced can never be without the object of desire. The greatest compliment.


Ralph Bakker oktober 2009