Meet Me There: values, constructions & destruction in the work of Estela Sàez

中文版 - Chinese version      

Estela's works play with values, constructions and destruction, the title „Meet me there“ seems to refer to a location or her own state of mind. We did not get too much information, far from the aesthetics while looking at them, but the catalog tells us:

Estela Sàez makes sculptures that look like jewels and not the opposite. (...). The objects proposed are stone or metal towns, primitives, distant, that hide fragile things in a constant process, fugitives. Her own way to make it happen is, to say the least, peculiar, given the treatment she makes to the material, its proportions and the impossible reproducibility of each object. From that ensemble, I am fascinated by the sculptures, made with pink or smoked translucent stone. And from the metallics’, the patinas, almost pictorial, that relegates the material to a stateless condition. She abuses the noble condition from materials such as gold and silver and brings them closer to scrap iron or rusty wire. / Jordi Mitjà, Lladó 2013

   

Looking again, back to the wall with the jewelry, I found that I can agree with all these points. I see incredible strong works, I see the abused yet poetic material, I see the sculptures which pretend to be jewelry. But what I don't see, is the appreciation of this pieces. Where is the light, the space, the thoughtfulness of the arrangement? I see all these pieces, put together, in this, now incredible small looking, white frame. The Gallery has two exhibition spaces available at the same time: The “Main” exhibition space, which is lightboxes, containing jewelry from Tabea Reulecke and Eva Burton and an „Off the Wall“ Mini-exhibition with pieces from Estela Saez.

 

The concept of this mini-exhibitions is quite nice: A frame, to fill with a work, or, in this case, a lot of works. The Frame is part of a white painted wall and might be big enough to show some smaller necklaces or earrings but in this frame, we found 14 strong, big pieces. Each of this works could fill the white frame by itself. This made me question the decision of showing the works in this environment.

 

By leaving the Gallery after our visit, I can still feel the energy I got from all this natural, wild & vibrant jewelry, but with this stabbing thought in my mind, that they deserve more attention that if there is too much art I want to add more Space.
 

About the author

Carolin Denter completed her training as Goldsmith at Master School for Craftsmen in Kaiserslautern in 2013. In 2015 she made an Internship at Klimt02, where she is working since 2016 as Content Manager. In 2017 she graduated with Bachelor of Fine Arts in Gemstone and Jewellery at University of Applied Science Trier, Campus Idar-Oberstein. After her graduation, she started working part-time as Marketing and Design management Assistance at Campus Idar-Oberstein in the Gemstone and Jewellery Departement.