If an illusion deceives your perception does it make the first understanding invalid? Does a gilt object betray us in some way or does it possess a truth of its own?

A skin of gold matches the contours of the bead in precise detail. It masks the underlying material of the piece which makes up 99% of its volume and 0% of its surface. How do you value the piece? Is this piece pretending to be something else or is it exactly what it is and we have deceived ourselves with visual assumptions?

If you know that the chain carrying the beads, the chain which is almost fully covered, is made of 18ct gold, how do you value the piece now? Is this a truth wrapped in a deception? Or is it just a piece to be perceived with available knowledge and accepted for its form and known materiality?

Is this work guilty for being gilty?

-Claire McArdle

Hyt is not al golde that glareth

We live in a society that litters our screens with images of self, strangers, food porn and cute kittens. We are often quick to judge by appearance, not always willing to entertain the real riddle of our reality. Aren’t we always told not to judge a book by its cover? Is it not also true that one rarely triumphs when choosing a wine by the design of its label alone? Geoffrey Chaucer, the ‘father’ of English literature, was known to chide Hyt is not al golde that glareth. It seems Chaucer was giving us fair warning: not everything is always as it appears.

Claire McArdle, through her jewellery, explores this notion of appearance and by extension the idea of value. In Public Displays of Attention from 2011/12, McArdle created loud, colourful, costume-like adornments and invited the viewer to choose which piece or pieces they felt best expressed themselves. Further to this the viewer was invited to pose and have their image captured in a portrait later sent to them by McArdle as a memento of that fleeting moment and feeling. This installation of work spoke clearly; it declared its intentions loudly and brightly, with much wit and enthusiasm.

McArdle’s latest body of work, Gilty, seems to speak in whispers and riddles. This work asks you to lean in close, to draw breath and make some serious decisions as to what you are seeing, what you believe you are seeing and what it is worth. With this work the words of Chaucer, (and the more famously misquoted Shakespeare “All that glisters is not gold”) come to mind. Within Gilty, McArdle challenges the paradigm of jewellery. The works seem to collide the notion of value in costume jewellery with its visual ‘fake realness’ and the traditional values of ‘real’ preciousness. Do you eventually throw your hands in the air with reckless abandonment and mindlessly enjoy and desire these pieces? Or do you continue to walk though the labyrinth relishing the contradictions and attempting to solve the riddle McArdle has served you up?

Zoe Brand Jeweller/Curator

The exhibition was opened by Mark Edgoose.

At the end of his speech he walked to the piece behind him. Snapped off an arm, popped it in his mouth and walked away. Much to the shock of the watchers.

The Second Experience

Neckpieces experienced once as wearable gilt forms. Experienced again as edible gilt beads revealing the true gold chain beneath. The pieces have not changed, they are as they always were. But the circumstances of perception have shifted.

If an illusion deceives your perception does it make the first understanding invalid?

Does the object betray us in some way or does it possess a truth of its own?

Objects once untouchable, displayed on gallery walls are now free to be consumed. Something on the body to become something of the body. The chocolate interior of the bead, once masked, is used by our bodies as the piece performs a new energetic role. While the gilt exterior, once admired for its value giving properties, passes through to not affect. What is their value now?

The perception of these pieces changes but their materiality does not. Were they a truth wrapped in a deception? Or were they to be perceived and perceived again with the available knowledge and accepted for their form and materiality?

Gone is the grand display of the beads, leaving behind the chain. Stripped of its original purpose, it must take on a new role. Is it a memory keeper for its previous form? Or is it free to be perceived as it is now? No longer gilty, just gold.

-Claire McArdle

To consume or consume?

We live in a society that plasters our screens with images of excess wealth, epic fails, coffee art and cute kittens. We are often quick to judge by appearance, not always willing to entertain the real riddle of our reality. Aren’t we often warned that still waters run deep, that you only see the tip of an iceberg? Geoffrey Chaucer, the ‘father’ of English literature, was known to chide Hyt is not al golde that glareth. It seems Chaucer was giving us fair warning: not everything is always as it appears.

Claire McArdle, through her jewellery, explores this notion of appearance and by extension the idea of value and experience. In Public Displays of Attention from 2011/12, she reveled in the performative. Forcing a reaction from her viewers, by asking them to adorn themselves with fabulous, bright, costume- like trimmings. McArdle engages the audience in an experience by inviting them to touch and to boldly take these pieces off the stark white walls of the gallery and apply them to their bodies. How does one look in such a piece? How does one feel wearing such a piece? How does one move in such a piece? This installation of work spoke clearly; it declared its intentions loudly and brightly, with much wit and enthusiasm.

McArdle’s latest body of work, Gilty, seems to murmur with cunning; not everything is always as it appears. This work asks you to lean in close, extend your hands and literally tuck into it. To consume or consume? This new work makes you question what you thought you were viewing, how does it make you feel about it now? Within Gilty, McArdle challenges the paradigm of jewellery, real verses fake, the traditional gallery ‘DO NOT TOUCH’ canon and asks you to question the whole experience. Do you eventually throw your hands into the air, and mindlessly enjoy and delight in the edible encounter? Or do you continue to walk though the labyrinth relishing the contradictions and attempting to solve the riddle McArdle has, quite literally served up to you?

Zoe Brand Jeweller/Curator

The exhibition lasted for a week. For those who visited they found the empty chains with an accompanying photograph of its previous form.

[Show as slideshow]

If an illusion deceives your perception does it make the first understanding invalid?

Does a gilt object betray us in some way or does it possess a truth of its own?

A skin of gold matches the contours of the bead in precise detail. It masks the underlying material of the piece which makes up 99% of its volume and 0% of its surface. How do you value the piece?

Is this piece pretending to be something else or is it exactly what it is and we have deceived ourselves with visual assumptions?

If you know the the chain carrying the beads, the chain which is almost fully covered, is made of 18ct gold, how do you value the piece now?

Is this a truth wrapped in a deception? Or is it just a piece to be perceived with available knowledge and accepted for its form and known materiality?

Is this work guilty for being gilty?

My piece in the exhibition Suspended in Pink which was at The Atrium in Birmingham, UK and is now at Studio Gabi Green in Munich, Germany as part of Schmuck 2013 and will travel to Heide Lowe in the USA later this year.

It will also appear in the Schmuck Show 2013 which is a live catwalk show of jewellery which is on tonight!

The (kanga)Roo - 50x21x23mm – 2012 – fluoro pink kangaroo leather & polystyrene

The kangaroo, the symbol of Australia. But what does it mean to be Australian? What happens when you dissect away the familiar body and are left only with the infinitely more ambiguous head?

This piece asks questions of national identity both at home and within a global society. It sits boldly on the chest, confronting, questioning, protruding through personal space. Its blank eyes offer no direction forward but merely reflect the infinite scope of decisions not yet made, of questions left unanswered.

Our uncertainty of identity is accentuated in this new symbol which utilises that most controversial of colours. Used as a weapon of prejudice and of freedom. The last colour to have any vestige of taboo.

The new symbol is made from the old. The furry brown heritage transformed into the fluoro pink leather as the questions mount. Who are we? What is we? We are Australian

Rosette (ribbon series), 2012, sterling silver, silk, stainless steel, 170x100x10mm

The rosette is fabric pinned to the body in that place usually reserved for jewellery. It distinguishes the wearer and bestows honour and recognition through its identifiable form. This piece is about the form as a symbol based on the concept rather than the consequence of an achievement. It is the re-presentation of the symbol as adornment.
Worn on the chest with its static fixation it takes reverential pride of place. Status is garnered not only from its form but from its location.
This piece is a symbol made into jewellery based on status adornment. The use of metal connects to jewellery while the use of silk relates to the rosette. Both take on qualities of the other as the silver components remain flexible and the silk substrate is proceeded by a cool, hard canopy of silver.

This Is Jewellery, 2012
Sterling Silver, Silk
64x22x0.3cm

The two dimensional artwork is traditionally hung on the wall.  It is experienced with the eyes but not with the body. This piece is a re-presentation of a symbolic form as jewellery.  It takes the most recognised form and conventional placement of art but retains the notions and functionality of jewellery.  The use of metal connects to jewellery while the use of silk relates to the canvas.  Is jewellery art?  What is art?  This is jewellery.

From 11-3pm Northcity4 will be opening its doors as part of the Craft Cubed Open Studios program.

You can also read my guest blog for Northcity4 here.

Sneak peek!

Northcity4

61 Weston Street

Brunswick

in Sydney at Studio 20/17 last Saturday.

Mark

Celina

Nina, Claire & Zoe

]]> http://clairemcardle.com/home/2012/new-pda-photos/feed/ 0 http://clairemcardle.com/home/2012/public-displays-of-attention-sydney/ http://clairemcardle.com/home/2012/public-displays-of-attention-sydney/#comments Sun, 27 May 2012 10:58:39 +0000 cmcardle http://clairemcardle.com/home/?p=438

Public Displays of Attention

A solo exhibition by Claire McArdle

Melbourne jeweller, Claire McArdle, presents an extremely playful and interesting take on the notion of traditional jewellery. Colossal and colourful, these pieces carry an urge to be connected to others, to generate new conversations and to breakdown the barriers often found between strangers.

Do make sure you attend the opening so that you don’t miss your chance to try on all the pieces and see which one attracts the right amount of attention for you.

5th – 16th June 2012
Celebration drinks Saturday 9th June 4 – 6pm
ARTIST TALK 3:45pm Saturday 9^th June 2012

They dance on the chains and hooks that secure them from escape.

Swaying in time with the motion of their beloved keeper, their anti-dreary joy infects surrounds.

Make friends with a piece, feel the soft caress of a leather tendril, take a journey together.

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Now available at

Alice Euphemia

Fever Pitch III & I

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Fever Pitch II

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Phantasmagoria: Fever Dreams

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