Jewelry is far more than an fashion accessory to those who study it at the Bard Graduate Center, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. It is instead a material symbol of culture. Bard alumna Sasha Nixon expresses her own take on the subject in the show “A View from the Jeweler’s Bench: Ancient Treasures, Contemporary Statements,” at the BGC Gallery through July 7, which she curated.
The exhibition features 60 jewels — half historic designs, half contemporary — through which it explores traditions of hand-craftsmanship and eternal motifs. A jeweler’s bench is at the center of the show, to emphasize the continuity between ancient and contemporary gem making.
The bench holds an eclectic mix of items. There are tools, like an ancient dapping block (a sort of die used for bending metal into smooth curves); a page from Denis Diderot’s 16th-century encyclopedia containing illustrations of metalworking techniques; and new works in progress.
Nixon conceived the exhibition as part of her qualifying paper for the master’s degree she received last May. “There are a lot of contemporary jewelers whose work is inspired by and resonates with ancient jewelry,” she explains. “Since the styles are so often exhibited separately, I wanted to bring them together.”
Among the examples of gold work are a pair of ancient Etruscan disc earrings, on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a 19th-century archeological revival piece by Castellani. “The reason why we have a Castellani brooch in the show is because the firm was at the forefront of trying to figure out how the Etruscans made amazingly complex granulation,” Nixon says.
Such historic pieces are accompanied by contemporary jewels that demonstrate how tody’s designers carry on the traditions of the past. “Jeanette Caines uses a gold fringe in her interlocking technique that she found in ancient gold jewelry discovered at Troy by Heinrich Schliemann in 1870,” Nixon explains. “Mary Lee Hu weaves metal in designs similar in style to Celtic torques”
Another theme the show explores is cameos as memory keepers. Nixon’s exhibition text explains that cameo production dates back to the time of Alexander the Great, continuing through the Renaissance and the 19th century. Depicted on these carved stones, shells and glass are ancient myths, political figures and religious iconography.
A 1st-century cameo of the Roman emperor Augustus and a 15th-century one of the Madonna and child in a silver-gilt setting, both on loan from the Met, are among the exhibition’s historic examples. These are placed adjacent to contemporary brooches by Nicole Jacquard. Jacquard uses a laser to engrave vintage photos of her family onto ovals of mica, silver, enamel and copper, producing pieces that are both personal and nostalgic.
“A View from the Jeweler’s Bench” contains many other playful juxtapositions and fresh spins on classics. Two ancient Egyptian pendants, for instance, are paired with the Little Egypt necklace by contemporary jeweler Kiff Slemmons, who echoes the silhouettes of the earlier pieces using wooden rulers, to reflect his experience in school. Shown alongside a diamond ring and a De Beers advertisement with the slogan “A Diamond Is Forever” is Mary Hallam Pearse’s silver signet ring, which has the words “Rock On” engraved where the gem in classic diamond solitaire ring would be.
The power and prestige conveyed by a traditional diamond tiara is transformed into an artistic statement in Gabriella Kiss’s gem-set bronze antler headpiece. Elizabeth Taylor’s famous La Peregrina pearl necklace becomes a bit of kitsch in Emiko Oye’s rendition composed of Legos.
By juxtaposing jewels made thousands of years apart, “A View from the Jeweler’s Bench” creates a dynamic call-and-response between ancient and modern designers. Nixon’s hope for the show, she says, is “that everyone takes away how relevant the past is in our contemporary society and how important jewelry is and has been.”
