Interview with Chiara Scarpitti

Do you think that jewellery is being standardized? What is there of local and universal in your artistic work?
Of course there are some aesthetic trends which are widespread globally. With the Internet Era, the risk to contaminate its own culture with the others is very high, but at the same time it's also very interesting. This allow to have a major range of expressions and more informations about different cultures. Anyway, a deep and conscious design have to be remain loyal to itself and his conceptual statement. In my works it originates from the phylosophical approach of my territory and from the mixed education with which I grow up.


Ushabti, solo exhibition at OhMyBlue Gallery, Venice, 2015
 

What do you expect when exposing your work to the public (for example with an exhibition?
I’d like that people could be involved completely by the mood of the exhibition and by the poetical message that the work wants to evoke. It will be amazing to interest deeply people about specific thematic, as the body's language and the objects. But, the ultimate purpose is to show a different way to feel and wear a piece of jewelry, with more intensity and awareness.
 
Are other areas besides the jewellery, present in your work?
There are a lot. I’m very interested to theorical research, through innovative approaches to the project and new processes of the manufacturing. My PhD research is focused on this. I try to merge inside my handcrafted jewelry pieces all my knowledges belong to the productive industrial world.


Phylogenesis, solo exhibition at Fondazione Plart, Naples, 2012​
 

The last work, book, film, city that has moved me was...
The last city that has moved me is New York, when I participated in LOOT at the MAD Museum. The last book that I’ve read is Alchemy and Mistic by Alexander Robb, a book with a lot of ancient and rare pictures and mediaeval practices about the Alchemy. I find very stimulating this research inside ancient cultural worlds.
 
A place, space, country whose creativity surprises me...
Amsterdam, because it's an amazing city, rich of interest for innovation and design culture. Indeed, my research experience there, at the Waag Society, is been exciting and unexpected in this sense. Everything there is possible, also the most crazy ideas... there is a lot of freedom.
 
Is there any designer, jeweller, artist, you appreciate a lot?
I'd like to mention three people: GianCarlo Montebello, my first jewelry teacher, where I’ve done my apprenticeship, Riccardo Dalisi as a designer and thinker, and also Carla Riccoboni, an Italian designer very cultured and sophisticated, with which I'm working currently now.
 
What piece or work has given you the most satisfaction?
I wouldn't know... there are different iconic pieces, belonging to different collections. The main satisfaction comes from the pieces that never get old, for their strong concept that crosses times.


 Reaction Poetique, solo exhibition at Ex-Asilo Filangieri, Forum Universale delle Culture, Naples, 2010


Do you read Jewellery Magazines? What is your source to get information?
Mainly I read books of design, art, poetry, but also something about jewelry. Amongst the jewelry magazines, frequently, I read Art Aurea, and of course I follow the main platforms for contemporary jewelry on web, like Klimt02 or AJF.
 
Do you discuss your work with other jewellery artists or any other person?
Very often, and it's fundamental in my opinion. I always discuss about the pieces with my assistant in the studio and my close designer friends, sometimes with my gallerists, that help me to improve each single collection.
 
What is your first thought when you hear the word Future?, What do you expect for?
I’m very projected in this moment to my first books as an author. They will concern two different thematic. The first is about the concept of seriality inside the contemporary jewelry. The second will be around a new scenario of postdigital culture, permeated by a transdisciplinary approach and the new role of the technologies, closest to a new kind neo-humanism.