SO WHAT! Liquid jewels by Nadine Kuffner
Reading Time:
1 min {{readingTime}} mins
SO WHAT! exhibition, featuring the work by Nadine Kuffner, just closed at Irene Belfi Gallery in Milan and confirms the main intent of the gallery to promote high quality contemporary jewellery artists and goldsmith writes Ilaria Ruggiero.
SO WHAT! is also the name of the work with which Nadine graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Monaco, and an obvious provocation.
In fact, the artist, fascinated by a material so poorly considered in jewellery as tin, exploits its properties, freely experimenting during the liquid phase of its state.
Her hands try to direct the material towards forms she imagines, but she has little control over the hot metal, and in this process an almost choreographic and performative relationship is created, in which sometimes she is only an observer.
A series of movements and shapes give life to a choreography, a very intense but at the same time fast and spontaneous process that leads each time to a surprising result.
The intention is to interrogate that subtle theoretical line that divides jewel and sculpture, casual and artistic action, an object of value and an invaluable product.
Her creations are positioned in a grey area between experimentation and technique, between conceptualism and organic research.
SO WHAT! In particular is an investigation of possibilities and limitations. It is a research of boarders and relationships between materials, the maker and the object, and where definitions of fine and applied arts are in question.
She is interested in the phenomena around the field of jewellery and how value is defined by material, knowledge, time and concept.
The same practice of composed and gentle provocation connotes the young gallerist, Irene Belfi, who continues in her activity of promotion and presentation of contemporary jewellery, with courage and determination, always stimulating new dialogues and opening original and innovative scenarios.
Irene Belfi Gallery
Via Nino Bixio 12
Milano
Image Credits:
Nadine Kuffner, Duktus
Nadine Kuffner, Half circle, tin, hempcord, 2019
Nadine Kuffner, Duktus, tin, 2016
Nadine Kuffner, Pearlnecklace 2, tin, hempcord, 2016
Nadine Kuffner, Tin series, tin, 2018
About the Contributing Writer
Ilaria Ruggiero is a cultural manager and curator working in the field of contemporary art. She is the founder of Adornment - Curating Contemporary Art Jewelry, a curatorial integrated project dedicated to contemporary art jewelry. It aims to develop the knowledge and consciousness of contemporary jewelry as artistic discipline and as ground search for technique, aesthetics, and philosophy.
Author:
Published:
