The First Experience
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.
