Still lifes and precious things

Artist list

Iris Nieuwenburg

Iris Nieuwenburg’s jewellery brings the eighteenth century back to life. It was the time of the first fully designed interiors and refined etiquette. Drinking coffee or chocolate had just come into fashion. For the first time in history social life extends into the evening hours, with guests wearing diamonds that sparkle in the light of countless candles.

The works in the exhibition do not simply repeat decorative patterns and colours from that period. By combining fragments of interiors Iris Nieuwenburg means to evoke moments in time, suggest movement, a presence in a room. To achief this effect she plays an intrigate game with two and three dimensions. Recognizable objects sometimes reveal where we are in a room or the time of day. These collages bring to mind the endavours of the cubists at the beginning of the previous century or the photoworks of David Hockney.

The seductively gleaming surface of the broches celebrates both the glory of times past and the innovative approach of the jeweller. Resin, photoprints and lacker are as essential for the finished works as the traditional silver. This contradiction is the strongest in the pieces which incorporate images of traditional jewellery: the brilliant emeralds are as flat as paper. This is of no importance because the work does not concerns itself with value, but with the interaction between people, objects and the interior.

-2016-2016