September Issue by Anya Kivarkis

Artist list

Anya Kivarkis

In the fall of 2007, in the middle of a global financial crisis, Vogue Magazine published its thickest issue ever. It also became their most infamous edition because of the blatant display of wealth and success. The best case in point being the spread dedicated to jewellery called 'Paris je t'aime', situated, remarkably enough, in the Roaring Twenties, a period of sustained economic prosperity. In times of recession, the history of material culture suggests that we surround ourselves with luxury goods and images of progress, in order to subconsciously conceal the underlying decline. Anya Kivarkis is fascinated by the use of jewellery in ways beyond the decorative purpose. The jewellery pieces in Vogue's 2007 September issue are a striking example.

Kivarkis based her new work on this publication. But what to do when you are a jewellery artist and you don't want your pieces to radiate the usual message of power and opulence? She decided to impair their conventional perfection and to neutralize their material value. Initially she finished her jewellery in paper white auto paint, nowadays she renders gold and precious stones in inert, dull silver. Furthermore she subverts the design process by relinquishing on developing her own models, and in stead appropriating historic design sketches and jewellery seen in photographs. In this way she commented some years ago upon the borrowed splendour on the red carpet at the Academy Awards. In her new exhibition she deals with the feigned illusions from 2007.

Kivarkis did not make these pieces of jewellery as the next symbol of shrouded longing, for she gave them a fresh and ambigious meaning. Let's interpret them as a hopeful sign that an era has come to a close and that the sedation of glamour can give way to a new self-assured, critical point of view.

Ward Schrijver
(© Galerie Rob Koudijs)