Jussi Järvinen. Saimaa University of Applied Sciences. Selected Graduate 2017

Saimaa University of Applied Sciences, Imatra, Finland


Horny is a contemporary interpretation of gender and masculinity. The purpose of the study was to investigate masculinity through jewellery art. The thesis deals with the interface between horns and masculinity through gender studies for example. Horn jewellery is also examined from the point of view of relation between men and jewellery.

The series consists of fifteen horns made of different materials. Horns can be worn like pendants on the body. They show diversity of masculinity and comment gender normativity. Various features of the horns question confined understanding of masculinity and stereotypes of violence and sexuality associated with men.

Horns and antlers can be seen as a symbol of masculinity, because almost without exception they are decorating only male animals that use them as objects of sexual attraction and as weapons in fights of their partners. Horns are phallic, violent and essential in propagation, but at the same time clumsy and impractical in large crowns.

Jewellery and horn both have a strong relationship with gender. In contemporary western culture jewellery is usually associated with femininity, men and jewellery have a problematic relationship. In the animal world males are more decorative than females, for example deers with their antlers. Horny questions gendered adornment of human world by bringing a traditional masculine horn into a feminine jewellery field. Horn pendants are on the body as tools, weapons or everyday objects, suggesting the functionality which jewellery for men is also mainly based.

More works and contact:
- jarvinen_jussi3@hotmail.com
- www.jarvinenjussi.com

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