Excited to share our 3rd Contemporary Jewellery Fair, coming this winter.
The fair will showcase the freshest and most forward thinking young designers.
Jewellery has historically been adopted as a symbol of power by both political and religious elites; think of the precious jewels of the Vatican, originally commissioned for the Pope Pius IVV by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1804 in exchange for his attendance at his own self-coronation. There are many such examples throughout history where jewels were used as expressions of hierarchy, instead of representing unity and equality.
This year’s Cluster Contemporary Jewellery fair, entitled “Sentient” continues with the mission of previous fairs to support and showcase the work of experimental jewellery makers, delving even deeper into materiality and concept. The fair’s mission is to abolish the still persisting association with jewellery as a token of exclusivity, luxury and assertion of power. Instead, we want to embrace another, much deeper and more authentic purpose of jewels and other bodily adornments as spiritual talismans that connect the individual to their community and to a higher knowledge.
These tokenistic objects were often humble, found objects with a profound and meaningful personal connection to the individual wearing them on their body, used as powerful spiritual conduits allowing access to a higher Self and elevating the single mind into the collective. It’s closely related to the movement of animism, which believes that everything on this earth, including people, animals and even nonanimate objects carry a distinct spiritual essence. Instead of focusing on some external divine power, it celebrates the intrinsic essence already living within everything that exists, believing in the ability to channel it through talismans. A crucial aspect of animism is that unlike other forms of religion, it rejects the notion of strict hierarchies and assigns agency and spirit to all living and nonliving things.
VENUE:
Koppel Project Space I Piccadilly Circus
48 Piccadilly Circus, Regent St., London: W1B 5RA
WORKING HOURS
8th December | Opening Evening | 5:30pm – 9:00pm
9th – 11th December | Working Hours 12pm – 8pm
Curated by Valeria Del Vacchio.
