Xavier Monclús
Jeweller
Published: 21.12.2020
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Statement
New Work series:My work has changed since 2010, and this is clearly visible if we observe my practice in the twenty years that preceded this shift. The narrative that so identified my pieces is gradually receding. Whilst retaining an element of figurative reference, my line of enquiry is now focused on a more direct geometric simplicity as well as a tendency towards minimalism. Narrative compositions have been replaced by forms that allude more to the inherent qualities of materials. I am now more interested in representing the materials that buildings are made of rather than narrating what happened inside them, as I used to do; to use geometric fragments that evoke the texture and colour of stone as well as of wood. Fragments speak of a whole; almost abstract in character, they can be in themselves a complete composition.
Animals have not disappeared from my work, not in the least. They are still there as messengers of our own selves, except now they are turned to stone. Petrified so that their memory stays with us forever.
I am now surrounded by the vernacular and the Bronze Age, Talayotic architecture of Menorca. Menorca is where I live now and where I should like to die: a small Mediterranean island, where one is always in contact with its ancestral core.
I love this island; I chose it, I represent it….
Animals series:
Animals feature constantly in my work. I feel a special sentimental attraction towards them. Through fable-like stories they can communicate complex human social behaviour. I often represent them as hybrid beings and assemble them alongside objects and architectural elements, so they acquire their own life and individual characters.
Architecture series:
Maybe I am a frustrated architect. If there is one distinguishing trait in my work it is the use of architecture as an important and recurrent feature. The house represents intimacy, where people are protected from the outside world, where they can live peacefully and in comfort, where they grow as persons. Old factories, a legacy from the Industrial Revolution, are also there, though they are now quite still, as if exhausted from their past manufacturing productivity.
Toys series:
“Jewellery to play with or toys to wear?” once wrote the art historian Mónica Gaspar. This is a very accurate description of my work. I have always been attracted to toys, though clearly I am no longer a child.
I add wheels to my pieces so they can race, others have handles for winding them up and set them moving…ultimately my jewel-toys have become surreal miniatures that have a deeper and more complex meaning than appears at first glance.
I am a collector of old toys. It is a very strong passion of mine. Stronger, I feel, than making art jewellery…
Images series:
Pop art has always been a reference in my work. I have always been fascinated by the way this art movement has the capacity to turn mass-produced images into art. Dada and surrealist collages and their typical disregard for the context of images have always interested me as a way of expressing concepts and ideas in my work.
I have also made jewellery in which found images are central to the piece. Sometimes, these images are just another component in the piece. In others the image generates another technical form that I construct, enabling the change from two-dimensional to three-dimensional form.
Dinky Jewels Collection serie:
Rings, earrings, pendants, small brooches and pins make up this series of work.
I make them or find them in flea markets, and they become prototypes that end up as small jewels. These sweetly ironic, figurative pieces inhabit a small world that expands as I find or imagine a new object. These are recognisable by everyone…they are now used to adorn us, but they stem from our most absolute everyday environment.
CV 
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