Jewellery Hyperreal - How could jewellery be transferred into hyperreality?

During the summer of 2012, Schmuck2 was invited for a residence at Künstlerhaus Lukas in Ahrenshoop (Germany). For two weeks a temporary laboratory was initiated to work on the theme  "Jewellery Hyperreal - How could jewellery be transferred into hyperreality?". The point of departure took its shape from the views of the Spanish designer Marti Guixe, who in his interview with Schmuck2 for the publication "HOCHsitzen" in 2011 stated that at the moment he thought "that jewellery's purpose is to be only a picture—not a reality—and in that way it can be present without being made." He compared it to "something like haute couture, you see it everywhere but nobody wears it." He asserted that “jewellery should go beyond material and handicraft," suggesting forms such as "plastic surgery, or text, or whatever that could be added into your image, figure or composition of the photo or video.”

The 20th century has been marked by simulation. Technical advances in the form of information technology, digital networks, genetic research, etc., allowed for the dissolving of boundaries between true and false, original and simulation. This blending of reality and fiction is also referred to as 'hyperreality.' Hyperreality is the image of something that does not exist in reality, but is rather its own likeness; or the image of an actual existing object that has been exaggerated or idealised according to the imagination of an artist. The project called attention to this development, and dealt especially with the questions: Does the emergence of hyperreality also have an effect on the human need for adornment? What significance does the existence of a hyperreality hold for the concept of jewellery? Can jewellery be transported into a hyperreal existence?

Within the temporary laboratory, which was followed by several exhibits in Germany and Japan, the art historian Dr. Anne Schloen and the artist Susan Pietzsch conducted a series of interviews with the Swedish curator Magnus Ericson, the Berlin based Romanian artist Daniel Knorr, the Japanese artist Yukinori Maeda, the Japanese/ German fashion brand Schmidttakahashi, the New Zealand jewellery artist Lisa Walker and Japanese producer Yu Yamada/ method Inc., which have been collected together in this publication. The booklet also includes a special contributed text by Akio Seki chief of the curatorial section at the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum (TTM).

Interviews by
Magnus Ericson | Daniel Knorr | Yukinori Maeda | Schmidttakahashi | Lisa Walker | Yu Yamada/ method Inc.
and a special text contribution by Akio Seki

All photo copyrights belong to the artists/ Daniel Knorr/ "Family Jewels" - Sammlung Andrea und Johannes Teiser

Edition of 500
 

About the author

Susan Pietzsch is a German jewellery artist based in Germany and Japan. In addition to her own artistic work, Pietzsch’s working practice encompasses a wide scope—comprehensive work on projects reflecting contemporary concepts of jewellery, which she has initiated under the name of Schmuck2 since 1997.
In so doing, Pietzsch's focus lies on international, artistic collaborations in which she explores unusual and novel representations of current concepts of jewellery.

With projects such as: "Wrappinghood," a project in public space for the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (2005); the poster project "Glitz and then Some - Things in the Everyday Life of Art" (2007); the "Discursive Picnic" involving audience participation parallel to the Handwerksmesse at the MaximiliansForum in Munich (2011); the workshop and exhibition "JEWELLERY HYPERREAL - How could jewellery be transferred into hyperreality?" (2012-14); and the jewellery hunt "Jewelry Hunting - Die Jagd nach dem Schmuckbild"; along with the HOCHsitz Atelier (2013), Susan Pietzsch formulates multifaceted interpretations of contemporary views of jewellery using conceptions that range between applied and fine arts. In addition, the artist has extensively and carefully documented her work in many publications.