Exhibition - Mirror-Mirror

 

I admit I’d never heard of Suzy Solidor.

She died many years ago yet the memory

of her full and satisfying life has inspired a

jewelry exhibition lauding her drive and spirit.

 

Mirror-Mirror is currently showing at Velvet da Vinci

in San Francisco, California.

Originally on view last month in

Cagnes-sur Mer (near the French Riviera),

Mirror-Mirror is described as an exhibition

in homage to Suzy Solidor (1900-1983).

 

A singer, model, writer, actress and nightclub owner

Suzy Solidor was an iconic figure of the

Parisian nightlife during the thirties and forties.

Two of the many things for which she

was known included posing for some of the most

celebrated artists of the day (Pablo Picasso,

Georges Braque, Jean Cocteau and

Tamara de Lempicka), and collecting over

200 paintings done of herself.

 

Let's just say she had a very high opinion of herself.

This jewelry exhibit is described as,

Twenty-nine artists from fourteen countries have accepted our invitation to study - and creatively respond to - the life of Suzy Solidor. We believe that their propositions constitutes a tribute to her singular life, and that they are best read in dialogue with the paintings presented in the Castle. A distorted mirror of that collection of portraits, this collection of objects prolongs it (some of the jewels are portraits themselves) but 'exceeds' it as well. Indeed, the practices represented in Mirror Mirror (jewellery, object, installation) are not mimetic; their point is not to resemble the 'sitter', but to outfit her fictions of identity: "I am a pirate / a singer / a (wo)man eater / a brittany gal who fled her native Saint-Malo…the better to ply Parisians with nostalgic shanty songs." The conceit that this jewellery is for someone specific in turn allows the makers to pretend that it is someone's: their pieces at once designate and invent new Suzy fictions. What better medium indeed than jewellery to fuel her mild mythomania?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a side note, I could not resist including

this 1932 photo of Suzy Solidor

wearing bracelets that were created

  for her by Coco Chanel.

 

 

 

See more of the Mirror-Mirror exhibition
at Velvet da Vinci's website.

 

Yoko Izawa Jewelry

The fiber-art-inspired aesthetic of Yoko Izawa's

veiled jewelry collection appeals to 

individuals looking to push the boundaries

of the ordinary and the typical.

 Experimenting with unorthodox materials

 has empowered this artist

to create a jewelry collection that 

addresses her personal search

 for the 'elusive and the ambiguous.'

There are spiritual and philosophical

 themes running through her personal

 narrative and she describes them at

length on her website:

When immersed in creative activities I feel that the sense of beauty and value within my culture surfaces and molds my work. For my means of expression, I feel more comfortable when the work has a quality of ambiguity or transience. My interest has been for sometime in containing, covering, or wrapping things. The search has been for something elusive. The function and material nature of jewellery does not concern me as much as the presence and feeling of an object. Veiled jewellery reflects my assumption that although certainty is often required in modern society, ambiguous expression has been the most distinctive characteristic found in Japanese values and religious beliefs.

The genesis of veiling her work is rather

interesting. Her process begins with 

cloth design. Using an industrial-size

knitting machine she transforms Lycra

and Nylon thread into tubular structures.

 The mesh-like, ribbed cloth is then

 hand dyed, and the entire piece of

 jewelry usually will be created

using one continuous piece

of fabric dyed one solid color.

It's not until these components are in place

that she then fills the cloth tubing with 

curvilinear shapes cut from

sheets of polpropylene resin.

The process sounds rather unyielding

but the effects are very supple and graceful.

For instance, this monochromatic piece

has an insert that

produces a wavy, undulating effect.

Multi-toned color

combinations are achieved by inserting

different colored pieces of polpropylene.

 Each insert adds its

own shape, dimension and variation

of color to the whole.

It's interesting how each enveloped disc

contributes its own subtle color and 

 a sense of resistance

with suppleness at the same time.

 These

voluminous coils are

especially remarkable.

The mesh cloth shows off the

interlaced curves of each piece

in distinct ways.

While volume, structure and texture is what

describes her work,

her aesthetic is what gives it meaning.

Her work successfully evokes a sense of something

ethereal, ambiguous and elusive.

We're inspired by her original techniques

and compelling color palettes.

By combining her signature

surface textures

with unusual shapes,

this artist has created elegant, original jewelry.

We hope you enjoy it as much

as we do.