 Benjamin Lignel.
photo: Baptiste Lignel, Paris
 Benjamin Lignel Piece: Io ce l'ho d'oro (yeah...but mine's gold) 2007 Fine gold 6,5 x 3,4 x 3,4 cm Beak extension for pigeon
photo: Enrico Bartolucci, Paris
An experiment on the ambivalent use of accessories to either mock, or ape,
the demeanour of our betters.
 Benjamin Lignel Piece: Io ce l'ho d'oro (yeah...but mine's gold) 2007 Fine gold 6,5 x 3,4 x 3,4 cm Beak extension for pigeon
photo: Enrico Bartolucci, Paris
An experiment on the ambivalent use of accessories to either mock, or ape,
the demeanour of our betters.
 Benjamin Lignel Piece: Suck my thumb 2006 Caramel-flavoured chocolate, branded beech 9 x 2,2 x 2,2 cm photo: Samantha Font-Sala
An act of faith, designed to last the average length of a Tex Avery
animation film, and procure a sweet kind of pleasure.
 Benjamin Lignel Piece: Wedding Goblets 1996 Sterling silver 9 x 7 x 12 & 8,8 x 6 x 14 cm photo: Joel Degen, London
Let me spell this out: this is not a ring-hanger, nor some complicated chin support.
This weird goblet is meant to be put on, and worn under the hand: this is proper drinking equipment. Take a groom, a bride: once this apparatus fitted on them, you pour the betrothal
wine into the recently adorned palms of their hand: they must drink into each other’s hand,
drink up from this ephemeral chalice.
 Benjamin Lignel
Wedding Gobelets, 1996
Manual
 Benjamin Lignel Ring: Happy family Mrs 1999 Sterling silver, offset-printed card box, paper 9,3 x 3 x 5,8 cm Set of three fold-to-fit rings
photo: Joel Degen, London
A mild and temporary cure for the compulsively possessive: this ‘happy product’ should make you feel better, whilst having none of the drawbacks of actually meeting with the medical institution. It is especially recommended if you believe that health and beauty are the same thing; this purchase, in fact, should represent a marginal fraction of your monthly ‘splash-out’ on skin creams and slimming products - think of it as an aesthetic band-aid.
 Benjamin Lignel Ring: Happy family NHS 2002 Rubber, gauze, ink, screen printed card, plastic sleeve 8,4 x 13,7 x 0,3 cm Set of two adhesive rings
individual ring 76 x 2 x 26 (top) / 76 x 2 x 20 (bottom)
photo: Joel Degen, London
Let us imagine that the NHS, just before its death rattle, adopts a liberal charter, simplified procedures, and a fresh, fashion-friendly attitude to dressings: while saving up to put your fatty deposits in the hands of overpaid, sublime surgeons, why not accessorise your minor cuts back to health!
(I know you want to.)
 Benjamin Lignel Brooch: Support your local jeweller 2006 Aluminium, steel, acetate ? 3,2 x 0,8 cm Set of two badges (edition of 150)
photo: Joel Degen, London
 Benjamin Lignel Ring: Super cheap thrills 2007 Fine gold, offset-printed card box 3,9 x 4,6 x 0,6 cm one instant ring
photo: Benjamin Lignel, Paris
The title refers to Janis Joplin's (almost) eponymous 1968 album, and purports that some memorable pleasures last no more than 9'38" (the ring does; avoid masonry work).
 Benjamin Lignel Brooch: Getting old sucks 2005-2006 Oxidised sterling silver, stainless steel pin medium 6 x 3,7 x 3,7 large 7 x 3,7 x 4,6 cm two brooches
photo: still - Joel Degen, London
portrait - Elène Usdin, Paris
Brooches for mammal in the p.m., worn to signal some things other than protracted youth: sag, feed, and pride. (The pair).
 Benjamin Lignel Brooch: Getting old sucks 2005-2006 Oxidised sterling silver, stainless steel pin medium 6 x 3,7 x 3,7 large 7 x 3,7 x 4,6 cm two brooches
photo: still - Joel Degen, London
Brooches for mammal in the p.m., worn to signal some things other than protracted youth: sag, feed, and pride. (The pair).
 Benjamin Lignel Brooch: Thinking of you (portrait) 2006-2007 Sterling silver, fine silver, polyurethane paint, stainless steel pin dimensions variable, aprox 4 x 1 x 6,5 cm photo: Enrico Bartolucci, Paris
“Thinking of you (portraits)” is a series of brooches that reproduces the ear of the user, or that of the user’s partner / friend/child etc.: each brooch is designed to order, and strives to render, much as a portrait painting would, the specific features of the sitter’s ear. It finds its inspiration in the Victorian hair work popular towards the end of the 19th century: mourning and sentimental jewellery, usually presented in the form of lockets, featuring a painted portrait on its visible side, and a braided hair lock on the flipside, or inside the medallion. It is poised, as the locket was, between remains and representation.
Each brooch is delivered in a box, pinned to a folded newspaper page featuring a personal ad describing the sitter.
 Benjamin Lignel Brooch: Thinking of you (portrait) 2006-2007 Sterling silver, fine silver, polyurethane paint, stainless steel pin dimensions variable, aprox 4 x 1 x 6,5 cm photo: Enrico Bartolucci, Paris
“Thinking of you (portraits)” is a series of brooches that reproduces the ear of the user, or that of the user’s partner / friend/child etc.: each brooch is designed to order, and strives to render, much as a portrait painting would, the specific features of the sitter’s ear. It finds its inspiration in the Victorian hair work popular towards the end of the 19th century: mourning and sentimental jewellery, usually presented in the form of lockets, featuring a painted portrait on its visible side, and a braided hair lock on the flipside, or inside the medallion. It is poised, as the locket was, between remains and representation.
Each brooch is delivered in a box, pinned to a folded newspaper page featuring a personal ad describing the sitter.
 Benjamin Lignel Brooch: Thinking of you (portrait) 2006-2007 Sterling silver, fine silver, polyurethane paint, stainless steel pin dimensions variable, aprox 4 x 1 x 6,5 cm photo: Enrico Bartolucci, Paris
“Thinking of you (portraits)” is a series of brooches that reproduces the ear of the user, or that of the user’s partner / friend/child etc.: each brooch is designed to order, and strives to render, much as a portrait painting would, the specific features of the sitter’s ear. It finds its inspiration in the Victorian hair work popular towards the end of the 19th century: mourning and sentimental jewellery, usually presented in the form of lockets, featuring a painted portrait on its visible side, and a braided hair lock on the flipside, or inside the medallion. It is poised, as the locket was, between remains and representation.
Each brooch is delivered in a box, pinned to a folded newspaper page featuring a personal ad describing the sitter.
 Benjamin Lignel Brooch: Hello! My name is W 2006-2007 Dental gold, dental ceramics dimensions variable, aprox 1,8 x 0,4 x 3,8 cm set of six brooches
photo: still - Enrico Bartolucci, Paris
portrait - Elène Usdin, Paris
Alongside the medal, which rewards military excellence, we find the trophy: no less a carrier of martial symbolism or an object of ornamental use, I found it surpasses the medal in indicating the flipside of victory, as it is usually procured directly from the carnage that conquest necessarily leaves behind.
Quoth Melville, describing Ahab’s Ship:
“She was apparelled like any barbaric Ethiopian emperor, his neck heavy with pendant of polished ivory. She was a thing of trophies. A cannibal of a craft, tricking herself forth in the chased bones of her enemies.”
This set of brooches was created in response to the ANTI-WAR medals project initiated in 2003 by gallery Velvet da Vinci, in San Francisco.
 Benjamin Lignel Brooch: Hello! My name is W 2006-2007 Dental gold, dental ceramics dimensions variable, aprox 1,8 x 0,4 x 3,8 cm set of six brooches
photo: still - Enrico Bartolucci, Paris
Alongside the medal, which rewards military excellence, we find the trophy: no less a carrier of martial symbolism or an object of ornamental use, I found it surpasses the medal in indicating the flipside of victory, as it is usually procured directly from the carnage that conquest necessarily leaves behind.
Quoth Melville, describing Ahab’s Ship:
“She was apparelled like any barbaric Ethiopian emperor, his neck heavy with pendant of polished ivory. She was a thing of trophies. A cannibal of a craft, tricking herself forth in the chased bones of her enemies.”
This set of brooches was created in response to the ANTI-WAR medals project initiated in 2003 by gallery Velvet da Vinci, in San Francisco.
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Benjamin Lignel, 1972, France.
Education:
1990-92 New York University, New York BA(Hons) Art History
1993-95 Royal College of Art, London MA Furniture Design
Public collections:
2012 Purchase by the Robertson library, Dunedin, NZ
2011 cneai, Chatoux
2010 Stedelijk Museum ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Holland
2007 Purchase by the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris
2006 Purchase by the Fonds Permanent du Bijoux Contemporain, Cagnes-sur-Mer
Exhibitions:
In the last ten years, Benjamin has exhibited - more often than not in extremely good company, but sometimes also on his own - in the following cities: Erfurt, London (Collect at Saatchi gallery, Design Museum), Cagnes-sur-Mer, Kracow, Wroclaw, Barcelona, San Francisco, Münich, Birmingham, Lódz, Limoges, Gardone Riviera, Saint-Etienne, Udine (Palazzo Giacomelli), Paris (Musée de la Chasse, Musée Galliera), Manchester (Manchester Gallery of Art), Padova, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Villejuif, Cheongju, Utrecht, Sopot, Mexico City, Edinburg, Tokyo, Luxembourg, New York, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Beijing, Zürich, Milan, Seattle, Berlin, Melbourne (National Gallery), Lenox, Milan, Tallin and Arnhem.
Relevant Experience:
2012 Co-organiser of the 44th Zimmerhof Symposium, with Brune Boyer and Emmanuel Lacoste
2011 Scenography for the exhibition "Collect Rocks, Plant Flag" curated by Leo Caballero and Amador Bartomeu at S O gallery, London | Co-curator with Jo Bloxham of the exhibition "Suzy Solidor" at Espace Solidor, Cagnes-sur-Mer | Ben has given workshops and lectures in Beijing, London, Reims, Paris, Limoges, Middlesex, Manchester, Mexico, Seattle, Melourne, and Arnhem.
2008 Co-curator with Christian Alandete of the exhibition "also known as Jewellery" (London, Rome, San Francisco, Munich, Idar-Oberstein, Falkenberg, Paris) | Co-organiser of Decemberfest/1st edition (AFEDAP), Paris
2006 Participation to the 11th “Schmucksymposium”, Erfurt
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1998 volume 7, a selection of 15 pieces - self published
1999 volume 8, a selection of 13 pieces - self published
2001 volume 9, a selection of 14 pieces - self published
2003 volume 11, a selection of 13 pieces - self published
2007 in "500 wedding rings", ed. by Marthe Le Van, Lark books
2008 page 1, a selection of 1 piece - self published (January) | page 2, a selection of 12 pieces - self published (February) | page 3, a selection of 1 piece - self published (March) | page 4, a selection of 2 piece - self published (May)
articles
"On defining contemporary jewelry", in Metalsmith, Fall 2006
"Repeat after me", in Metalsmith, Summer 2008
"Plan B", a Klimt02 blog, summer 2009
"If I am fast, will you still love me?", in ThinkTank, edition 06, 2009
"What does it mean to us?", in Grey Area Gris, Biblioteca de Mexico, 2010
"CCTV", a Klimt02 blog, spring 2010
"now and never: the currency of contemporary jewellery", in ThinkTank, edition 07, 2010
"Filling the Blank", contribution to a round table discussion on critical discourse, AJF blog, 2011
"Species of rings : the last show at Hnoss", essay written for Hnoss gallery's last publication, 2011
"Objects with instructions", in Metadomestic, Landesgalerie Linz, 2011
"Keeping it pure, keeping it dead", in It Was Like a Fever (RMIT gold and silversmithing graduation catalogue), 2012
"Original Copies", in Metalsmith, Spring 2012
essays on designers and jewelers
Bless, in Tribéca, 2000
Kosuke Tsumura, "Final Home", in Tribéca, June 2000
Ulrike Kämpfert, "The Art of w(e)ar", in Also Known as Jewellery, 2009
Christian Gonzenbach, "Safari", in ThinkTank, edition 06, 2009
Atai Chen, "The Redundance of Matter", in ThinkTank, edition 06, 2009
Lin Cheung, "Name: Lin Cheung", in ThinkTank, edition 07, 2010
Lin Cheung, "Wear Again, Again", in ThinkTank, edition 07, 2010
Victoire de Castellane at Gagosian Paris, "Just what is it that makes today's art galleries so different, so appealing?", in Art Jewelry Forum, 2011
A5, "Direct Debit", in Think Tank, edition 08, 2011
Kiko Gianocca, "(not) Your Picture Here", in Think Tank, edition 08, 2011
Manon van Kouswijk, "The Generic and the Singular: Portrait of the artist as a Maker", in Objectspace
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