Hearts on Fire by Alaitz MM. Gavilan

Samples of future brooches.

Statement: Alaitz MM. Gavilan is a visual artist originally from Barcelona now based in Glasgow. Inclined towards jewellery making as mode of expression. Alaitz also engages with other self-taught artistic practices, like illustration and collage, to present her work. The series of objects designed for this collection derives its meanings from social movements and reflects on how the fundamental rights that we take for granted today have always been achieved by public protests and demonstrations on the streets, and very often with violence involved. To create an aesthetic of resistance, of a type of distressed materiality, the jewellery pieces have been abused or damaged; putting the enamel under the pressure of a press form, for example, and creating a crackled texture, as metaphor of a broken individualistic society, characteristic of neoliberal economics and politics. The objects here call for empathy and solidarity, a demand for a more community-minded society, symbolised in these small-scale works. Importantly, this collection is part of a broader personal project to expand silversmithing & jewellery designs and bring these closer to a wider spectrum of people, from different social classes, a goal of many previous generations of craft-activists.