A collection of a porcelain jewellery the concept of which lies in being a truly personal gift.

 

Jewellery is something important to us, we keep it safe and we wear it to express the way we want to look.

 

In the beginnings of man, jewellery was made of animal teeth meant to be a religious object that brings blessings from a deity. In the modern world we have much less fear of nature and animals, mostly we fear each other. So in a way the focus has shifted from a system of the holiness protecting us against nature, to us, protecting ourselves from others.  In this sense it would make sense to have jewellery made of human teeth as a totem to the fact that in the modern world the biggest enemy we have is people like us.

 

People have a big emotional connection to their teeth, losing them brings big problems practically, but emotionally it is a piece of your mouth that you constantly feel missing making you feel incomplete. In this way holding a tooth brings a completely new meaning to what jewellery could be.
 

Bites can be treated similarly to fingerprints, they are a completely unique mark we leave on the earth. Fingerprints are left impersonally, simply by touching something. Bite marks are a bit more complex, to leave a bite mark a lot more emotion is involved, to open the mouth and bite something requires either fear or trust. There needs to be a stronger connection to leave a bite mark, a certain level of trust and in a way it leaves a mark that identifies the person, and unlike other ways of identification it requires emotion from the person’s side to create.

These bites symbolise the people that made them, so in a way the bites are the people. The work is a collection of objects that have a deep emotional meaning for me, and the idea is to explore the multiple ways in which they can be presented. The bites can be thought of as scars, or as deep impressions, no matter in which way they are viewed they are a strong mark on us. Emotional marks that will never go away. Putting them in the context of other people and personal impressions creates an object that expresses the purity of interaction with other people. Some people leave scars, and some people leave impressions, some people leave both, but we should be happy to have them because they helped guide us. Time changes everything, but our bites always stay with us reminding us of the best and the worst in life.

 

Porcelain bites are connected with steel wire rope, which is representing strength of relationships. Wire is going through the bites and around them the same how people are going through and around our life.

 

 

Jahresausstellung Kunsuniversität Linz 2014 - Linz, Austria