Jewellery in Horizon-Zero Dawn

In the video-game,  Horizon Zero Dawn you play as Aloy, a hunter in a world overrun by machines, large robotic creatures that our human hunt for parts. It takes place many generations after a forgotten apocalypse where civilizations were reduced back to a kind of primitive state.

Her jewellery evolves throughout the game as she rises in rank and unlocks more resilient outfits.

Aloy at the start of the game as an outcast before she initiated into the tribe.

Her jewellery is made from found objects like machine parts, plastics, cords, wires and wood. It is also symbolically important as it represents a place in the tribe as hunter as well as reflecting their nomadic values and beliefs

 Aloy after she is initiated into the tribe and takes on her role as a Seeker.

The Nora( her tribe) worship nature as the 'All Mother' they are  very spiritual hunter-gatherers. in their tribe the higher your status or importance the more accessories they seem to have and they just get bigger and bolder.

The nature of excessive and bold jewellery is a common trait in nomadic tribes as it was a means of high status and portable wealth.

Khampa Woman, Tibet.

Rich nomadic Khampas favor precious metal and jewels as a store of wealth because they are easily transported.

Their culture is very conservative about the type of ornaments favored: for thousands of years jewelry made from amber, turquoise and coral have been worn because the stones are believed to hold spiritual power.

Gold and Silver are naturally found in Tibet and carry great social status, with the gold pieces commonly featuring Buddhist designs.

To the Khampa people these pieces have the utmost sentimental value and significance, because they are the physical remnants of generations of their ancestors hard work or success.

Functions of jewellery: Status and Social Identity

Jewellery is a universal form of adornment. Metcalf [1998] regards jewellery as," a body of objects, emanating from almost every known society since the beginning of culture." hence, "one of the most important purposes of jewellery, is to mark social identity and status...to either distinguish or merge the wearer with social groupings" as he would describe it.

Hairnet, Front Medallion., bearing a bust of Aphrodite, Goddess of Love.

This golden  hairnet is said to originate from a wealthy family of  the Ptolemaic Dynasty of Hellenistic Egypt. Certain elements of the hairnet's decoration seem to have had a close connection to the Ptolemies, the ruling family of Hellenistic Egypt. Aphrodite was considered the divine equivalent of many Ptolemaic queens.

 In her book (Style and Function in Roman Decoration) Ellen Swift addresses the function of  jewellery in the Roman Era. She describes jewellery, especially precious metal jewellery as being regarded as the female equivalent of the male symbols of office,  an important element in manifesting a women's feminine, elite status.

Assassins Creed Origins: Cleopatra
Her jewellery symbolised her identity as Egyptian Queen and the belief that she was the embodiment of the Goddess Isis

 Gold as we know it, is a timeless extremely precious material,  as it doesn't degraded or oxidize over time, it's a perfect conduct of electricity and it's the best reflector of red light as it is currently being used on the latest NASA space telescope.

Details on Hairnet, Small Pendant.

Swift explains that, "A high status for females as well as males, was partly constructed through materials like precious and semi precious metals and stones.

Elite status could be amplified or represented through the use of intricate decorative pattern and labour-intensive, highly skilled decorative techniques."

Swift suggests that, "such designs impress through an awareness, on part of the viewer, of the difficulty with which they are achieved. A plain gold piece, without gems, could be worn by anyone, decoration thus becomes a way to differentiate oneself from others who may access to elite materials yet are not accepted members of the elite, and to reinforce the separation between the elite an those of lesser status."

       

Why Art Thrives at Burning Man

One can always be a Unicorn.

In her TED talk, Nora Atkinson explains Why art thrives at Burning Man.

There has been 30 years of Burning Man, with it's  origins in early anarchist years. Atkinson describes it today as an experiment in collective dreaming.  Every year around August thousands of people for a single week power down their tech and pilgrimage out into the Black Rock, Nevada Desert.

Participants at Burning Man, i guess the theme is simply, expression.

Their purpose?

To build and anti-consumerist society outside the bounds of their everyday lives.

The entire encampment of Burning Man can be thought of as one giant interactive art installation driven by the participation of everyone in it.

What set it aside from commercial art work is that anyone who makes work can show it.

None are sold there. At the end of the week if the works aren't burned, artists have to cart them back out and store them. It's a labour of love.

Created by Alexander Milov 2015, signifying external conflict and internal need

Burning Man 2018

It's about redefining arts value by the emotional connection it creates between the artist and the audience, or the benefits it gives our society, or the fulfillment it gives the artist themselves.

These are also the questions that contemporary jewellery asks, The VGCJ explains contemporary jewellery as that," which can be described as contemporary not merely because of its recent date, but because of its engagement with a diverse range of contemporary social, environmental, technical or artistic trends."

Any piece of jewellery we create is contemporary because it is made today and it can fall within one or more of these terms, it's not something that is exact, like everything in the universe it can flow together.

Nothing is true, everything is permitted.

Functions of Jewellery: Personal Decoration

Jewellery has always been used to decorate the human figure. Providing visual accents, colour, contrast and texture as well as to focus attention to specific parts of the body.

Metcalf (1998) describes it as," a compositional device in the layout of the human form." He suggests that our urge to decorate satisfies a psychological and social purpose, a great ability that jewellery has to enhance self image and alter social perceptions.[1] It gives us a vehicle to express our selves, jewellery is objectively something small but more often than not encompassing big meaning.

I find that people are most themselves when they don't have to be themselves, one mask comes off and another comes on.

Conventions like Comic Con and festivals like Burning Man allow for an explosion of creative expression from people.

[Fig 1] Participant at Burning Man Festival 2018

[Fig 2] Participant at Burning Man

The outfits that the participants put together are inspired from a variety of cultures, influences and found objects, it perfectly reflects the beautiful complexity of our identity that we each have. It's complex concept, we are complex, people more often than not want to identify with more than one thing, it's the idea of mosaic identity and we owe it to ourselves to recognise and acknowledge the nodes that make up us.

Polymer Clay Bangles. Clay Cloud Creations, Comic Con 2018

Polymer Clay; Light switch covers, containers, pens and hand mirrors. Clay Cloud Creations, Comic Con 2018

References

1. https://www.brucemetcalf.com/on-the-nature-of-jewelry-part-1(Accessed March 2018)

Fig 1 - https://za.pinterest.com/pin/592575263446643833/ (Accessed March 2018)
Fig 2 - https://www.instagram.com/p/Bk6er2dhRIF/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1ddiluw2myxdm (Accessed March 2018)

The Functions of Jewellery

Jewellery can be described as ornamentation of the figure that has been given meaning. These meanings can be characterized to form some of the functions of jewellery, in his essasy, On the nature of jewellery, Bruce Metcalf describes jewellery by its physical, social and psychological ability to touch people. Jewellery has many functions, some of these functions are; personal decoration, social status and spiritual mediation.

Assassins Creed Origins: Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator, Queen of Egypt

These functions stem of each other. On Cleopatra one could see how these characterisations can be entertwined. As one of the wealthiest woman in Egpyt, she could afford elaborate jewellery simply to decorate herself with, but this was also a symbol of her position as Egyptian Queen and her identity as the embodiment of the Goddess Isis. If her position or life were compromised she could easily flee with the investment of jewellery on her and start safely anew.

       

How do i feel about contemporary jewellery

I honestly don’t know, I knew what is was. My initial understanding of contemporary jewellery was jewellery that was addressing a current issue, but it is a broad spectrum of definitions that is constantly in a state of expansion and change. Expressing meaning and ideas whether worn or not, sparking intrigue and question.

Sol LeWitt says “Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists they leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach” [1.]

I have found contemporary jewellery to be more a story, being written as you go along. As much as I can think about where I’m headed I never really know where I’m going, a vague idea “somewhere that way,” but I try to embracing the uncertainty, try to think optimistically. Creating contemporary work has become more about the journey rather than the destination, being able to find the treasures within the journey, in other words it’s not about the product but the process. It’s a lovely mixture of faith, science, questioning and understanding.

I am quiet the lazy kind, to put it in intelligible terms, I want to achieve maximum effect with minimal effort. I think a lot and read a lot more than I physically do, but eventually I always start somewhere at some point. Everything starts at a point, this is how the universe came into being: “There was no heaven, no earth, and no universe – just empty space. In this vastness, a single point manifested itself. From that point steam, smoke and mist spiraled in a luminous sphere and the sacred sound Su was born.”[2] I feel like that point in that emptiness but it is from this point that I hope to flourish.

1. Sol leWitt, "Sentences on conceptual art."(1969) Art language, Vol 1, no1

2. Morihei Ueshiba, "Art of peace"(2002)

Looking back at Thuthuka

20 February 2018

A thought…

There are so many places my mind wanders that I draw inspiration from. My fascinations always bring back to the ancient world. The civilizations of before continuously fascinate me, perhaps it’s my human nature of seeking an origin. However the past is muddled up with history. Information passed down through the ages and altered as people saw fit.

One of the reason the ancient world fascinates me is because of the immense people belief people had to create these structures. Take the Pyramids for instance some mainstream history has you believe these are just monuments created as a final resting place for kings, one of the theories I believe that it was used to help transmit or create a form of electricity or energy. 

Belief is extremely powerful, they make up the world, in a very real sense they are the world, it’s something that lies at the core of our mindset, and lies within every culture and idea.

Thuthuka; looking back on origins

For Thuthuka I had looked back at the different cultures that I grew up with. As a child these are crucial years in your early development, some things that happen to you as a child tend to stay with well into your life.

Islam had its prominence as the religion I would be raised by, my mother was Tamil and converted to Islam after she married my dad, however my parents were not very religious but their belief in a God was very much there.  They were progressive for their time and community, and never stopped me from questioning and exploring.

There are few instances where I remember a clash in faiths.. It was these small instances that started leading me to question religion and other cultures around me. Why couldn’t people of different faiths respect each other?

I had initially tried depicting this division, two faiths joined together yet still apart.  I had focused so much on the division that I hadn’t looked at what ties them together. In a way this is also what is wrong with people, we’re so focused on emphasizing our differences, we forget the things that bring us together. I found that Mosques and Temples used sacred geometry in their design, this lead me to look more at what ties together than breaks apart.

                                                                     Pieces I created for Thuthuka

Sterling Silver and Resin Earrings

Ceramic Incense holders