This semester while continuing with bricolage, I have been looking at the space between wearer and viewer while positioning my objects more specifically on the body. I am interested in how wearing contemporary jewellery can affect your personal space and how everyday objects direct relationships.
As part of my experiments I decided to take a leaf from Kristin D’Agostino’s 'BOM' http://broachofthemonth.blogspot.com/ where she has 'created a project in an effort to reinstate the community aspect of traditional craft into the contemporary jewellery culture'. By appropriating Kristen's project, I hoped to use it as a tool that would help me understand the relationship between a wearer and viewer more clearly than just my preconceived perseptions as maker. 'Broach Me’ 7 days-7wearers', entailed one brooch and 7 willing jewellery makers, wearers and viewers from within MSVA to wear one of my brooch's for a day. Each wearer was expected to meet with the next wearer after a 24 hour period and past it on. The brooch came with a wee box and a note book where each wearer was asked to comment on how the brooch had affected their own body awareness and any interactions it had initiated with others.
As part of my experiments I decided to take a leaf from Kristin D’Agostino’s 'BOM' http://broachofthemonth.blogspot.com/ where she has 'created a project in an effort to reinstate the community aspect of traditional craft into the contemporary jewellery culture'. By appropriating Kristen's project, I hoped to use it as a tool that would help me understand the relationship between a wearer and viewer more clearly than just my preconceived perseptions as maker. 'Broach Me’ 7 days-7wearers', entailed one brooch and 7 willing jewellery makers, wearers and viewers from within MSVA to wear one of my brooch's for a day. Each wearer was expected to meet with the next wearer after a 24 hour period and past it on. The brooch came with a wee box and a note book where each wearer was asked to comment on how the brooch had affected their own body awareness and any interactions it had initiated with others.
Sinead and Lucy
" The brooch has a lot of movement and moves to the beat of the music on the radio with me"
Paula and Sharon"I always wear my little bag on right shoulder, opps-careful of the brooch Paula!"
"Joey said ' That's really cool it's really in your face... well its in my face anyway."
Lucy"Reuben and I did have a bit of fun with it, pretending to attack him and play out scenes from 'Dr Who'!
Darshini and Laura "Deciding where to place it was difficult, didn't want to get stares in the wrong places."
"I'm not trying to touch you there, I just want to feel it - Vicky"
Jutta"When I hugged my friend good-bye the brooch got caught in her jacket so we carefully had to seperate each other"
Through this 'mini-project' I hoped to bring awareness to how an object can direct decisions that a person makes and the relationships they have with others . Six of the seven participants are avid contemporary jewellery advocates and one, Jutta, was new. She was the one I got the most delight from, she was so excited to wear one of my brooches and very keen to show it off and make the most of it. Much to her dismay thought, wearing such a piece proved to be a challenge, even though I had relented slightly and decided to give the wearers a more practical rather than difficult one to wear for daily student life. All 7 wearers were wonderful, meeting each day to pass on the brooch and let me photograph the interaction, even when circumstances meant that an arranged meeting posed some difficulties. The brooch stood true as an object by making the wearer conscious of the world that is external to them and kept each participant to their word and directed their day, while better establishing relationships between us.
Thanks girls!!, and of coarse Kristen for your inspiration, it was a fun and enlightening week.
