Jeannette Knigge, MASieraad Hasselt-Amsterdam. New Talents Award Nominee 2024

Name of graduation student: Jeannette Knigge
Name of guiding teachers: Ted Noten, Ruudt Peters, Liesbeth den Besten

Nominated by MASieraad Hasselt-Amsterdam at PXL-MAD School of Arts


Jeannette Knigge chose to work in a direction within jewellery that is not easy. For decades the body as a place of identity, struggle and manipulation, has been explored by many outstanding visual and jewellery artists. Jeannette didn’t focus on one specific aspect of identity because she thinks our identity is fluid and can change over time and through context. Instead, she holds us a mirror that makes us aware of how we adapt to different situations, and how we perform our identity without even being aware of it. She chose to use her own face and body because this is the best way to perform her work. Jeannette collaborated with a professional photographer and was at the same time model and art director. This resulted in a strong and captivating series of photographs.

Her background as a trained and practicing goldsmith allowed her to make her jewellery and objects in a refined and perfect way with an eye for every detail. While at the same time she distanced herself from the conventional goldsmith and re-invented herself as an artist.
/ Liesbeth den Besten


Statement by the artist:
I am a goldsmith, a mom, an artist, a friend, a woman, a wife, a daughter, a student, a teacher, a happy person, a strong person, a pansexual, a swimmer, a woman in her menopause, a confident person, a jealous person, a white woman, an insecure person, a lazy person, a social person…

All these people are inside of me, and I’m not having an identity crisis. It's normal to play all these different roles in different places. Somehow, I know how to behave. Understanding who you are is difficult for everybody. Where do you belong? Everybody needs to be their best self at any time. Being part of a group means you need to behave the way people understand and can fit you into the box you choose to belong to.

By studying philosophers Judith Butler and Simone de Beauvoir about gender and feminism, and the Social Identity Theory developed by psychologists Tajfel and Turner, I discovered that there is no identity without a social environment. Those social environments make you who you are. At the same time identities are fluid and can change by time and context. The question of what visual art, jewellery, and especially art jewellery, does in this perspective interests me and made me study the work of artists such as Emmanuel Lacoste, Lygia Clark, Marina Abramovic, Yoko Ono and Lauren Kalman.

In am very interested in the work of Lauren Kalman, whose work and ideas I love. After the main part of my artistic work was done, I decided to include a Kalman versus Knigge chapter in my thesis. I found some interesting differences and similarities. My main conclusion is that in my work I want the piece to become part of the body and its expression. Therefore, I choose not to make it shiny and clean. My pieces can re-construct the wearer’s performance, like a building material but can it be seen as jewellery? In contrast with Kalman I do not want to use performance, although I have done performance which challenged my physical endurance. But eventually that is not what I wanted. Instead, I choose to use photography of myself wearing the pieces I had made. I’m questioning if this is still jewellery. Wearing these pieces can be the start of a new box, or you can be part of the people who don’t belong in a box, which is a box on its own.

My research focused on the question of how our identity is built and the place of art jewellery in this matter. If you wear art jewellery, are you performing with it, trying to evoke a discussion or emotion from the people looking at it? Or are you just wearing art jewellery because you like it?

My research made me aware of the roles I play in my life and the performer I am. In this writing and simultaneously making art jewellery, I found an identity I hadn’t felt connected to for a long time: the Artist.



Contact:
Email: info@kunstgoud.nl
Website: https://www.kunstgoud.nl/
Instagram: @kunstgoud


Find out more about MASieraad Course