During the 3 days Workshop – in the Force Field of the Seeker, Gisbert Stach and the participants approached the theme of jewelry in new forms. They tested it as a language, as a medium and explored the effect of jewelry with unusual techniques. Through photography, video or performance, they presented their projects and tackled current issues of the nowadays society. The workshop took place at Art-Up Contemporary Jewelry School and was part of the exhibition and performance I LIKE JEWELRY AND JEWELRY LIKES ME.BEUYS 101, initiated by Goethe Instiut, in the year dedicated to the performance artist Joseph Beuys, complementary event of AUTOR International Jewelry Fair 2022, which will take place on 28th – 29th of May at Oscar Maugh Palace in the heart of Bucharest.
Miruna Belicovici
Miruna’s work talks about impermanence of many aspects of life, but mostly of love. She chose to depict this idea through 3 ephemeral jewelery pieces. The first one is a ring made out of copper, a very soft material, which can be bend with bare hands with a strawberry as a stone – the nonrefusable engagement ring. Like love in some case, it get consumed over time.
The second piece, showcases a dandelion, symbol of ephemerality, a plant which is very close to her and her son’s heart. The third part of the project, consists in 2 constructions, monumental rings made out of plain paper, tissue, plastic and glue, painted in black. They represent 2 antagonistics of the same idea, one gets through the whole transformation process, while the other, the plain version, eventually gets burnt and blown in the wind.
Maria Dima
Maria tried to portray death in a colorful way, to emphasize the cyclicity of life itself. While something dies; death being represented by the skull; something else lives – the plant symbolises life, everything in the omnipresent hand of God – evoked by the red glove, which is just a support.
Gisbert Workshop challenged her to play with new materials and get out of the comfort zone, as it was the first time she used ready made objects and plastic. She usually works just with metal, bones and different materials coming from animals. Initially, she wanted to wear the piece on the face, showing how she gets suffocated by the plastic strings, referring to the harmful effect of plastic on climate change. In the end she wore it as a back jewelry, maintaing her characteristic gothic aestehtics.
Laura Sima
Laura’s work brings her background in traditional jewelry to the table, covering her pieces in aluminium foil to evoke precious materials. She found the sweet spot of conceptual and traditional jewelry. Her project consists in a tradidtional head piece, which was supposed to be a necklace in the first place, a pair of earrings and a traditional romanian blouse which she stamped with her own logo, using coffee.
Victoria Tonu
Victoria’s work, a heavy necklace and earrings made out of bread talk about interrelation, about how during a conflict something as humble and basic as bread, becomes very precious. When one link is affected, the whole chain suffers. She was inspired by the perishable materials Beuys used and approached a political theme, making reference to the Ukraine war. Gisbert Workshop helped her to challenge herself to approach such a theme, which she didn’t dare to explore until then and to gain a new perception on conceptual jewelry.
Cristina Marculet Petrescu
Cristina tried to counteract the general belief, whereby art is useful, hence she used ordinary materials as copper, which is also used for plumbing, creating in the end something which looks precious. During the workshop she learnt how to dig deep into herself and get knowledge from inside, rather than from the outside world. It was an interesting experience, which challenged her to see art and jewelry making from another perspective.
Madalina Stoica
Madalina’s work speaks foremost about liberation and freedom. Jewelry making is for her a liberation process, since she felt constraint during her childhood and just later on, she found ways to fully express herself. The first piece is a trophy for freedom, as she names it. She feels that creating jewelry can heal her, but make her sick as well, being a process which can leave physical marks. Madalina belives that when you love something, it will imprint you somehow, the same way you want to leave marks on others through your work. During the workshop she discovered new things about herself and found the courage to confront her inner concerns.
Ana Barbu Uzura
Influenced by the discussions in the workshop regarding the Romanian mentality towards appearances, Ana tried to express a way of breaking free from the materialist desires.
Therefore, she created the outline of a necklace, using different symbols of wealth, such as feathers and a bull, which makes reference to Beuys creations as well. For her, the workshop represented a way to create with less rules and a great opportunity to work with experienced artists like Gisbert.
Ioana Enache Bordea
The experience of the workshop with Gisbert Stach was unique to me. Having a list of atypical materials for a piece of jewelry that we could use (brush, wiping gum, wires, strings, aluminum, paint etc) and being used to working with mathals and gemstones, this was a real challenge for me, a way out of my comfort zone.
But like all the things that make you leave the comfort azone, they make you grow. Having an architectural background, I chose to create a series of 3 objects / jewelry that could be either decorative objects or contemporary jewelry. The material used was a “mosaic” of copper aluminum in the form of honeycomb (I admire and respect bees enormously for the work they do and the way they do it).
Thus, in this workshop entitled “in the force field of the seeker”, I searched in me for this exit from the comfort zone and its adaptation to something that represents me: the architectural background (objects having architectural forms) and working with metal, but this time not precious ones.