Depot Basel presents Craft & Bling Bling - Fake

Curated by Current Obsession

Depot Basel, space for contemporary design in Basel, Switzerland and Current Obsession, contemporary jewellery magazine, present a collaborative curatorial effort in the context of Depot Basel’s ongoing exhibition series ‘CRAFT &…’.

For CRAFT & BLING BLING ‘FAKE’ they commissioned work by twelve jewellery makers reflecting on the subject of ‘FAKE’ from standpoints of jewellery history, their own work mediums or contemporary art and society.

Participating Artists:

Adam GrinovichBarbara SchrobenhauserEdgar MosaFlorian MilkerFlorian WeichsbergerHe JingJulia WalterKevin HughesMallory Weston, Philipp Eberle, Rainer Kaasik-AaslavSophie Hanagarth

 

SHOE LACE
Rope, Oxidized brass

JUMP RING
Brass

DIAMOND
Glass

EYEGLASS WIPE
Cloth, Flocked canvas

- “FAKE takes many forms, such as assimilation and disbelief. A FAKE cannot exist without an original – an object to compare it to as unauthentic, to manifest its existence as a replica, an imitation. FAKE takes place when a design object loses the purpose it is meant to serve. It thus becomes a prop, if it is still useful, or an object of art, if it is useless altogether. René Magritte dignified the FAKE eternally with an image of a pipe. FAKE may emerge as a failure of proof and this might turn FAKE into poetry. “[…] as long as nothing happens between them, the memory is cursed with what hasn’t happened.”* Considering the collaboration between Depot Basel (a place for contemporary design and haptic exhibitions) and Current Obsession Magazine (a publisher of images and non-haptic objects) I chose to dedicate my contribution to this particular dual life of the object – its existence and its picture. Thus, I have re-created objects that do not exist, despite appearing real in images. The large dimensions of these objects withdraws their purpose: A jump-ring becomes a bracelet; a shoelace becomes a jump rope; an eyeglass wipe cloth becomes a tablecloth; and a diamond remains the shiny rock that it is, regardless of its use or function. It is a collection that accentuates an implied illusion, it retains a context of jewellery and it depicts objects that flirt with my day-to-day experiences.”
* “Blue Eyes, Black Hair”, Marguerite Duras

Photo By Thomas Albdorf