Petra Zimmermann: Schmuck│Jewellery

Eye-catchers and thought-provoking pieces. Petra Zimmermann’s ironic play with glamour and stereotypes.

Petra Zimmermann belongs to the emergent, rambunctious, upcoming stars in the field of contemporary auteur jewellery. In just a few years the young Austrian has made a name for herself with her extravagant and ‘untamed baroque’ works - not least due to her complex plays on quotations and the intense confrontation with questions on the attraction, value and expiry date of material beauty. In her earlier series ‘Schmuck im Schmuck’ [Jewellery in Jewellery] (1998–2002) the artist was already combining the old and the new, in which she cast found materials – mostly old costume jewellery from flea markets – into contemporary base forms made from coloured plastic. The dusty sparkle of old rings and bracelets was born again in a new blaze of colour in youthfully glamorous creations. In appreciation of aesthetic categories not based on material value, Zimmermann’s aesthetic quest is simultaneously reflected in the area of tension between auteur jewellery and the fine arts. 

This tension is also shown in her brooch series ‘Cut-Outs and Pin-Ups’ (2003–2005), in which stereotypical images of female bodies taken from newspapers and magazines are displayed and further ironised by the application of sparkle. With gold leaf and glass stones, intricately adorned plastic serves as a base material. Here, artistic jewellery becomes – quite hedonistically –a critique of the dazzling superficiality of costume jewellery. 

Petra Zimmermann’s latest cycle of work is also distinguished by the complex and ambiguous comprehension of the jewellery pieces, where fragments of plastic and costume jewellery consolidate into wanton exotic flowers, or an entire handbag is able to be transformed into a bracelet. The joining of floral elements, historical industrially-produced jewellery, and mass-media images of models and design icons creates hybrid forms that appear to lie somewhere between Jugendstil, futuristic sculpture, and contemporary ergonomic design.