Elisabeth Holder: From jewellery to Contextual Art

‘Doing something with my hands.’ This is what I wanted from the outset, and it determined my choice of profession. That I then trained as a goldsmith was more by chance. But above and beyond that choice, learning artisanal skills and taking my first explorative steps as a designer were inextricably linked with making jewellery. My journey as an artist began with studying jewellery and design at Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences and graduating with a diploma in design, followed by a Master of Arts degree at the Royal College of Art in London. The time I spent in London freelancing as a jewellery designer was already linked with teaching assignments and lectureships, the last of which was at the Royal College of Art. However, my learning and continued training did not stop there for me. I went on to train as an art therapist for a few years before being appointed to a chair at Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences. After ten years in the metropolis that is London, I returned to Germany with the appointment as Professor of Jewellery Design, to the place where I had first studied, only now in a teaching role. And that return also shifted my previous focus to one anchored in teaching and research.
 
Of the four subject areas outlined in this book, the first relates to my time as a jewellery maker. Early on, I developed my own approach to Minimalist design. I have always viewed pieces of jewellery holistically, and therefore naturally incorporated functional parts, such as brooch and pin backs as well as catches and clasps, into the design process. This meant that they were to fuse with a piece of jewellery in such a way that, separate from the person wearing it, it would also become an autonomous object in its own right. Works from that time embody a further essential aspect of my work, the oscillation between stringent geometry and organic form.
 
The artistic research I have conducted can be subsumed under three overarching, overlapping and interdependent subject areas. They relate, on the one hand, to ornamentation, which is closely associated with jewellery and finds its origin in ancient signs and symbols; on the other, to expanding the customary ways of dealing with material by adding the dialogic aspect; and finally, to the development towards a generalised concept of jewellery that emerged from these two areas.
 
In relation to the first subject area, travelling to Neolithic sites in western Europe with research stays in Ireland and Brittany, have expanded and deepened my fundamental interest in symbolic expression through signs. Those forays into researching on site and the process of inquiry into the contextual interpretation of signs are what enabled me to relate jewellery to ancient signs and the ornaments that have emerged from them.
 
The second subject area involved an intensive examination of material in the field of tension that lies between mastery and dialogue, and how these very different approaches might have a bearing on design. I first tested the dialogic aspect on the basic elements. Within the field of jewellery making, they are the most likely to elude direct formability and can therefore not be easily mastered or controlled. I then turned my attention back to the metals I am so familiar with: steel in combination with fire, and ultimately gold, the classic material for jewellery by definition. All my works since then have conveyed my insights in dialogue with material.
 
Making jewellery was, therefore, for me embedded in increasingly comprehensive processes. This inevitably led to the third area and the fundamental question of what jewellery is and what jewellery can be. I took a sabbatical term to conduct intensive research into this issue. I wanted to find out what conditions jewellery must meet for it to be acknowledged as such even when considered apart from its usual context, that is, the human body. My studies led to a large-scale teaching and research project, Schmuck als urbaner Prozess [Jewellery as an Urban Process], which I carried out jointly with Professor Gabi Schillig. It was thoroughly documented in an exhibition and an accompanying book.
 
This process aiming at a redefinition of jewellery – a thread that runs through all the above-mentioned subject area projects, which are interlinked both temporally and methodologically – led to a paradigm shift. From then on, I was able to place jewellery in new contexts. I illustrate this approach in the last chapter of this book with examples drawn from fields of context such as architecture and the natural environment. Thus, it becomes clear that jewellery of this kind is never excessive in format yet is at the same time Contextual Art.

 

About the author

Prof Elisabeth Holder, *1950 in Sindelfingen. Trained as a goldsmith and studied at the Hochschule Düsseldorf, University of Applied Sciences (HSD) and at the Royal College of Art in London. Until her appointment as Professor of Jewellery Design in the Design Department of the HSD in 1988, she was a freelance jewellery designer in London. During her time in the UK, she held various teaching positions at universities, most recently at the Royal College of Art in London.

With her appointment at the HSD in 1988, her focus shifted to teaching and research, which she continued to complement with phases of her own artistic inquiry, investigation, and implementation, as well as showcasing her work and findings in exhibitions and publications. Elisabeth Holder ended her teaching career in 2017. She lives and works in Erkrath near Düsseldorf.