Jewellery Thinking

As an educator in the field of art, I am particularly interested not only in the profound meanings of jewellery but also in its educational potential. In an era where autonomous learning is increasingly popular (thanks to the pandemic), we can reconsider the role of jewellery as a transmitter of education.

Illustration by Into Niilo.


We can find indirect evidence of this educational value of jewellery in books, articles, and activities within the jewellery field. Lin Cheung refers to jewellery as a subject for exploration and research.[1] The famous AJF website has a slogan: "Jewellery that makes you think." Trier University of Applied Sciences, Campus Idar-Oberstein, has organized 12 editions of the symposium "ThinkingJewellery."[2] Stars from various disciplines attempt to project a model of universal knowledge and understanding of the world onto their respective fields. For example, Rem Koolhaas, a prominent contemporary architect, has formulated the term "architectural thinking"—a method of cross- and interdisciplinary thinking that a 21st-century architect should possess.

Now, let's project this way of perceiving the world on jewellery field. Imagine a jewellery exhibition as an open classroom full of "textbooks" in the form of jewellery pieces, each containing a wealth of information spanning various domains. Every individual can enter and freely learn something new through these handcrafted pieces.

Illustration by Into Niilo.


We step into this jewellery classroom, a room of curiosities, and certain pieces catch our attention. Let's engage in a few “lessons”.

Example of studying through jewellery on Panacea Tiara by Mairi Millar. 2017. 18k gold-plated brass, pain relief and laxative medication. A scheme designed and developed made by me. Photo by Rob Chron.



Lesson 1.
We "open" the first "textbook" — a shining golden bracelet. Upon closer inspection, we realise that the main "ingredient" here is contraceptive pills. We search for the author's name, Eva Van Kempen. 

Eva Van Kempen. Bracelet: lun-mar-mer-jeu-ven-sam-dim, 2019. Superfluous contraceptive pills, PVC film, artificial leather, silver.
Unique piece from series Planned Parenthood. Photo by Eva Van Kempen.



Our minds delve deeper into questions of pharmacology, human rights, women's rights, and abortion laws. We contemplate the connection between this topic and the democratic society we live in. But suddenly, we recall hearing about the conservative government in Poland implementing strict and controversial abortion laws.[3 Could this be influenced by the close ties between politics and the Catholic Church, which holds significant sway over the ruling party's decisions?[4] We continue our search and Google some information: it turns out that Poland ranks in the top 10 countries worldwide in terms of the percentage of Catholics.[5] 


Photo from the protests in Poland against the abortion ban. Words on a poster: Abortion – is our right. Photo by Julia Toman.


How many "pages" of this "textbook" have we explored in this lesson? Let's carefully close it and move on to the next "book."


 Illustration by Into Niilo.



Lesson 2.
The next "textbook" has an attractive and vibrant cover—a pink pendant labelled "Bra Gold." The jeweller, Mian Wu, explores the hidden aspects of mass-producing jewellery in China and speculates about the gold content in the items worn by factory workers. Despite strict control measures, Wu is convinced that the workers' clothes absorb tiny amounts of gold, so she effectively transforms them into jewellery.

From used gloves and carpets to women's bras, all these objects become precious pieces. Our thoughts race toward questions of ecology and the ethics of using precious metals. We ponder the existence of uncontrollable processes and question the true value of things. This leads us to contemplate the application of the law of value (German: Wertgesetz der Waren)[6] described by Karl Marks in such cases. We are thinking about the differences between “made of gold” and “contain gold” pieces and how different people value these two categories. We delve into the irrationality and pattern thinking of consumers, reminiscent of the diamond-water paradox [7] formulated in Plato's Euthydemus: although water is on the whole more useful for human beings, in terms of survival, than diamonds, diamonds command a higher price in the market. 

This quite hard lesson intertwining economics and philosophy is good to visit. Now, let's move on to another textbook.


Mian Wu. Gold Pendant from projects Gold Jewelry, 2015. Gloves used in jewellery factory for gold Processing Contain 0.68g gold.


Photos from the Gold jewellery factory in China. Picture from the official website of Mian Wu.



Lesson 3.
Here is a two-volume edition: a pair of beautiful necklaces, one of which is adorned with enamel blossoms. They were created by Mairi Millar from Trinidad and Tobago. Do we know anything about this country?

Mairi Millar. Necklaces: Twin Islands, "As Poets Love The Poetry That Kills Them" and "As Drowned Sailors The Sea", 2018. Fine silver, enamel, embroidery thread. Photo by Rob Chron.


It has a significant colonial history and only gained independence in 1976. The red flower on one of the necklaces is the national symbol of the country — chaconia, which blooms at the end of August, precisely on the day of the country's independence. We observe the second necklace adorned with words. It features a quote by Derek Walcott, a renowned and internationally recognised author built his career in Trinidad and Tobago, who won the Nobel Prize in literature.

To continue this "lesson," we make a note to read more of his work at home. We begin to reflect on our tunnel vision. Often, we unconsciously adopt a Eurocentric perspective. In 2022, curator and historian LaMar Gayles made an insightful remark about the need to de-center Eurocentric Hegemony.[8] With these thoughts in mind, we leave the ‘classroom’ having in mind a lot of things to study at home.


Illustration by Into Niilo.


Did we have any prior knowledge about these jewellery pieces? Perhaps.
Is it important to revisit some of these facts and reconsider certain phenomena? Yes.
Can we consider this process educational? Absolutely.

With just a few pieces, we have explored lessons in political science, geography, botany, religious history, ecology, philosophy, and economics. There are numerous examples of jewellery artists whose works offer a multitude of lessons: Lin Cheung, Gisbert Stach, Tamara Marbl Joka, and many more.

Why is it important to articulate this educational value?

In a casual context, education becomes as nonviolent as possible. Furthermore, learning through jewellery aligns with current educational trends, such as self-regulated learning.[9] In this democratically oriented form of education, the individual's willingness and ability to learn are key. Reflecting on one's own thought processes, active engagement in the experience, critical thinking, and finding personal relevance in the subject matter (in this case, jewellery) are all crucial.

These requirements may seem daunting initially, suggesting that the audience should already be prepared and intellectually elevated. However, I favour Kant's idea of enlightenment: the light of thinking is already present in the nature of every person.[10] Therefore, there is no threshold for "students" in our metaphorical classroom. Each jewellery piece provides a space for thought, just as a forest offers different treasures to different individuals — some may find a single mushroom, others a bounty of them, and a few may stumble upon a bush of berries. I once encountered the term "The book as a walkable space" used to describe a catalogue for the Lisbon Jewellery Biennial. So if a piece of jewellery is a textbook, it too has its own walkable space. Similar to postmodern texts, it can be read and studied on various levels, depending on the learner's potential.

Moreover, jewellery can be used literally as a tool in the early stages of education. Imagine using it as an object to teach basic skills to children. Isn't it more captivating to learn colours and numbers through jewellery than colourful sticks, cubes, and 2D books?

The aesthetic dimension of education could intensify immensely when teachers explain colors or ecology using examples from Paul Derrez or Stefano Fronza's brooches. Counting can be practiced using Gigi Mariani's composite pieces. Studying the names of geometric shapes becomes engaging with Robert Baines or Nicole Beck's work.
Craft or upcycling lessons could include examples of Rachel Darbourne's soft pieces or Denise Reytan's plastic treasures.


Denise Reytan. Necklace: Samoa, 2010. Amazonit, amethyst, coral, turquoise, rope, plastic, silicone, etc.



As students grow older, they can revisit these objects and explore them in more depth, as described above, thereby covering the entire spectrum of the official school curriculum. And, of course, such ’textbooks’ would be much more visually appealing to students than traditional books.



Some might perceive jewellery as a mosaic, fragmented tool for education. However, isn't it an excellent example of fostering a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach to exploring the world? Some may consider this idea utopian. But why not admit this thought of the jewellery-centralised mind of educators? Yet, this educational value of jewellery remains an uncut gem. Anyway, it is a quite unique phenomenon: having the opportunity to study the entire world through these small objects.



Endnotes:
[1] TOMFOOLERY Objects and Jewellery, book by Lin Cheung, ISBN: 978-0-9572988-0-4 Paperback, 196 printed pages, published by: Tomfoolery Publishing UK, Belgium, 2014
[2] https://www.hochschule-trier.de/en/campus-for-design-and-art/dept-of-gemstones-and-jewellery/made-in-io/symposium-thinkingjewellery
[3] https://www.euronews.com/2023/06/08/poland-launches-investigation-into-abortion-related-death-of-pregnant-woman
[4] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/31/poland-protests-catholic-church-abortion-women/
[5] Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae in Polonia AD 2017 (PDF). Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae in Polonia (in Polish). Instytut Statystyki Kościoła Katolickiego SAC. 2017 
[6] Karl Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy, in Marx-Engels Collected Works: Volume 6: Marx and Engels, 1845–1848. New York: International Publishers, 1976.
[7] Sandelin, Bo; Trautwein, Hans-Michael. A Short History of Economic Thought. Milton Park: Routledge. ISBN 9781138780194. Wundrak, Richard (2014). 
[8] https://artjewelryforum.org/interviews/lamar-gayles-on-judging-the-susan-beech-mid-career-grant_jurornatl-us_auth-marta-costa-reis_authnatl-portugal_12-12-2022/
[9] Innovation Pedagogy 2022, Open University Innovation Report 10, The Open University statement: https://prismic-io.s3.amazonaws.com/ou-iet/5c334004-5f87-41f9-8570-e5db7be8b9dc_innovating-pedagogy-2022.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0SkRsaxe6igHP8maDB8huzIzEglU2CAZzuQgSI5HiOL15minSk7JE7Wb4
[10] Immanuel Kant’s 1784 essay What Is Enlightenment: http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/CCREAD/etscc/kant.html

 

About the author

Elena Karpilova was born in Belarus in 1987. Since 2022, she has lived in Lisbon, Portugal. From 2005–2009, she studied art at Glebov Art College as fine artist (Belarus); from 2010–2016 she studied at the University of Culture and Arts (Belarus) as a comparative art critic. She is an art critic, an artist, and the head of an interdisciplinary project for children and youth, the Architectural Thinking School for Children, which now works in Portugal with families of migrants. “Due to a lack of education in the jewelry field in Belarus," says Karpilova, "I've been studying the subject on my own." Writer, content maker for ArtJewelryForum. Member of PIN association, Portugal. Member AGC (Association of Contemporary Jewellery), Italy. Finalist of the AGC Italy - Association of Contemporary Jewellery's Maria Cristina Bergesio Award 2024. Participant of Lisbon Jewelry Biennial 2024 as curator of L’étrangère project. 

Website: https://elenakarpilova.com/
Instagram: @karpilova