Vania Ruiz
Jeweller
Published: 03.09.2021
- Mail:
- casakiro
gmail.com
Based in Viña del Mar, Chile, and formally trained as an architect. Since 2010, I divide my work between my jewelry brand Casa Kiro and a more personal art jewelry practice as Vania Ruiz. I’m also an active member and part of the Board of Joya Brava Association. I won the First Prize at the 2nd Latin American Contemporary Jewellery Biennial 2018, and also got the Second Prize in 2016 for the first version of the same event in Buenos Aires. My work was featured on the cover of Metalsmith Magazine in February 2020, thanks to my participation in Loot 2019 at New York MAD Museum. My pieces have been presented in Chile, Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Polland, Greece, Portugal, Argentina, and the United States.
Statement
I’ve always needed to create things with my hands. I don’t have formal training as a jeweler or either as an artist, but jewelry surprised me allowing me to bring together those things I’ve loved to do since childhood: tell stories, sketch, paint and make objects.In my work, I search to unveil and understand aspects of our cultural identity from a feminine Latin American perspective. And so, jewelry is, for me, a means to explore our culture, discover in popular manifestations a starting point for creation. Protection, raising, taking care of others, creativity, and manual work are qualities associated with a feminine world. Virtues that have been underestimated as well as the intrinsic value they hold.
Much of this ancient female wisdom I did not inherit. It has been through jewelry that I have been able to admire and relate to this woman that I am not and from whom I have so much to learn. The decoration that celebrates the cult to death, devotion, home adornment are all instances where the craftsmanship of popular knowledge is present, often relegated to a lower level of crafts. Elaborated pieces are generally made by women that express love, protection, and belonging.
Each series of work I make is a tribute to these feminine worlds that move me, always accompanied by the experimentation of new material plus historical or anthropological research and reflection on some self-defined aspect. I generally use synthetic or industrial materials to give them a new craftsmanship use because these are the raw materials of our time and which I have on hand in my environment. I use low-cost materials and contribute them with many hours of my time, the major investment for love.
Events 
- Mail:
- casakirogmail.com
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