We re-spotlight an article on the Gee’s Bend quilts, whose work is featured in What Lies Beneath – Women, Politics, Textiles...
… Family, Community, and Inheritance in the Quilt-Making of Gee’s Bend
We re-spotlight an article on the Gee’s Bend quilts, whose work is featured in What Lies Beneath – Women, Politics, Textiles...
… Family, Community, and Inheritance in the Quilt-Making of Gee’s BendJewelry and object making…
… Spotlight: Haydee AlonsoOriginal hardwoods: structural rules of weaving…
… Spotlight: Sophia DeJesus-SabellaPlayful objects
Elevating everyday materials such as glass, brass and copper, Smith’s designs revelled in the handmade aspects of jewellery making as he hammered and soldered offcuts and shaped metal into new, biomorphic forms.
… Art Smith’s Modernist JewelleryExplore examples of female image makers and their contribution to Bauhaus through 5 defining photographs.
… Frauen Vision: 5 Progressive Photographs by 5 Unsung Bauhaus WomenFind out more about Sicgmone Kludje & Vea Koranteng’s knitting club…
… Spotlight: Black Girl Knit ClubVeiled Voices 2020 is an inclusive community embroidery project, which invites women across the UK to come together and explore perceptions of Hijab wearing in Britain, with the aim of creating understanding and friendship.
… Spotlight: Veiled Voices 2020Guernica Remaking, a research project led by Dr. Nicola Ashmore, seeks to explore how the radical energy of this political charged artwork is being harnessed by community groups across the globe.
… Spotlight: Guernica RemakingsMiyelle Karmi makes ceramics that are bursting with personality. Starting with a lump of clay, her range of homeware, jewellery and sculpture twist and turn.
… Spotlight: Throwing shapes with Miyelle KarmiJewellery touches the body in curiously outward facing but intimate encounters. Xuan Ma offers new perspectives on the ways in which the human body interacts with design and craft. By using mirrored metal surfaces and straight lines that run alongside the curves of the body, abstract parts of the human body are reflected and made visible. The inside of elbows, the upside down refracted gum line shown in the inside of the mouth, the underside of the chin – these ‘private views’ all illuminate the ‘hidden beauty of the body’.
For me, jewellery is a creative language to communicate my personal understandings and design ideology to others. After numerous trials and failures in the workshop, I was able to transform all the ideas that seem impossible at first into reality. Thus, I was fascinated by the incredibly enjoyable working process. Another motivation for me is to explore more possibilities in jewellery by applying the newly discovered materials or new effects to my work.
Xuan Ma
My collection of jewellery uses reflective surfaces to see and rediscover our bodies emphasising a new, meaningful way to appreciate and understand ourselves. I realise in our everyday life, reflective, shiny surfaces are everywhere and the notion of reflection and positive self-reflection is complex and is too often experienced in a comparative, judgemental way – a selfie is not in fact for oneself even if taking one is a private act. Our obsession with self-image and comparisons with others is everywhere. I realised the strongest reason why we take photos is not just about memories, it is about getting familiar to ourselves—to record and see different views of ourselves.
Xuan Ma
To create a more meaningful way of looking, I started to develop serendipitous ways to appreciate the uniqueness of our bodies, especially by highlighting the parts that we can’t directly observe ourselves which in my opinion can be found a true sense of self-beauty. Using my metalwork skills, I have made wearable personal mirrors, which help capture these hidden beauty spots, momentarily or just long enough to instil in us a positive act of self-appreciation rather than of judging oneself.
Xuan Ma
Each piece of my collection reveals a part of the body you can’t see yourself such as the inside of the mouth, the teeth, the armpit, bottom, top of the head, elbow, chin and the private parts. I have designed the pieces so that when they are not being worn or used, they can be placed on a table or hung on a wall, as you would with an ordinary mirror. This collection allowed me to rediscover how beautiful the unseen body can be and how a mirrored jewellery object can be empowering.
Xuan Ma
All images by Xuan Ma.
‘Private View’ was nominated for The MullenLowe NOVA Awards and has won the prize of Autor Magazine 2019.
Follow: @x.mahin_jewellery
Xenobia Bailey’s career is as eclectic and colourful as the spiral crochet patterns that form a key part of her aesthetic. Having studied ethnomusicology at the University of Washington and Industrial Design at the Pratt Institute, she went on to work as a costume designer for Black Arts West and learnt to crochet at the Greenpoint Cultural society in Brooklyn. Her crochet hats infiltrated pop culture in the 1980s, appearing everywhere from United Colors of Beneton advertisements, and Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, to Elle magazine.
… Spotlight: Xenobia Bailey’s Aesthetic of FunkWhen graphic designer Michael Eaton contacted musician King Khan he was gifted a very special commission: “I had been a huge fan of his music for years and it just so happened he was thinking of making this Tarot deck so it was appropriate timing”.
… Spotlight: Black Power Tarot DeckWe chose to spotlight Bilbao’s work in this Bauhaus special issue because her socially conscious architecture echoes a commitment to geometric scale and a simplicity of translating design.
… Spotlight: Tatiana Bilbao