25 June 2008

Street jewellery

Several views of my new neckpiece by Linda Hughes, an up-and-coming Melbourne jeweller who makes amazing pieces in laminate. Along with the necklace - a birthday present, thank you Erika! - came a little book showing more of Linda's work - pendants, bracelets, brooches too - The essay by Sarah Jane Ross starts: "Historically the stripe has always been the naughty cousin of the polka dot. Not so cute and innocent, stripes have always been located in the margins of society." A thought to think on, on...

The essay continues: "the stripe is also menacingly draconian, dictating an edict but daring us at the same time. ... The stripe as an urban symbol reassures us, satisfying our society's obsession with safety and control."Even circles can be stripey, full of "trickery [that] renders the viewer unable to distinguish the background from the foreground."
Here is the vocabulary of the stripe, (not so) "subtly present in our urban environment" -
Once you see Linda's work you really start to notice the "jewellery of the streets".

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Margaret, what a brilliant, thought-provoking gift!