For a long time now, jewelry has not been limited to simple rings, necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. But the latest upheaval caused by facial sculptures and ornamental masks is particularly spectacular.

By Sandrine Merle.

 

 

These unconventional jewels, partially or completely covering the face and even extending into headdresses, were the subject of an exhibition during the last edition of Homo Faber, the biennial crafts event held in Venice. Dozens of strange models were lined up in the dimly lit pool on San Giorgio Island… In fact, they started making headlines in 2020, due to COVID: Tilda Swinton attended the Venice Film Festival concealed behind a curiosity in openwork gold metal evoking, according to its creator James T. Merry, “a ray skeleton or seaweed.” Welcome to the realm of cyborgs, anthropomorphism, human-plant-animal hybrids. By turns poetic, theatrical, surrealist, and frightening, these new jewels resemble a wrestler’s hood, a minotaur’s head, an anti-atomic or funerary mask, XXL glasses, or even a bubble. Mythological reminiscences, folk tales, and fantastic stories intrude. We verge on the morbid with the presence of a beak, fake wide-open eyes, a hole for a single eye, or even the absence of holes for seeing. But we’re not in “Eyes Wide Shut” territory, as eroticism is virtually absent.

 

Richly decorated faces

The strangeness of forms is matched by the vast array of materials, textures, and colors. The combinations sometimes seem absurd… These genderless facial sculptures use of pearls, feathers, plant fibers, agar-agar, fabric, mohair wool, latex, and lace, but also ceramic shards, small toys, electronic parts, tiny golden boxes recovered from flea markets or the street. For his part, Pierre-Louis Graizon uses recycled felt adorned with precious stones and watch hands. He applies 24K gold leaf to reveal the roughness of light-absorbing materials like wicker and felt. Muriel Nisse combines real long hair, including gray strands, with shimmering sequins and lace. Asya Kozina sculpts laser-cut white paper. In a chromatic frenzy, Dimitri Shabalin agglomerates plastic toys, chain pieces, doll eyes, Japanese figurines, and watches. Giacomo Benavati knits with metal wire.

 

An iconoclastic approach

Present in museums and galleries, this practice today is akin to a manifesto, exploring the unconscious and raising a thousand questions about transformation, social constructs, non-conformist identity, the desire to escape reality, the staging of identity, and so on. Several creators present themselves under pseudonyms: that of Norwegian Magnhild Kennedy is the contradictory Damselfrau (miss-madam); “it masks itself,” she says. Jasmin Reif, originally from Germany, presents herself as Judas Companion, and Adrien Monfleur as BKY Walden. These multidisciplinary creators come from the worlds of makeup, embroidery, and video; they venture into organic, architectural, scientific, emotional, and even sonic realms. They draw on their individual uniqueness to invent an aesthetic grammar. Muriel Nisse, for instance, improvises to music, which impacts the rhythm of her gestures and thus the final creation.

 

Jewel? Facial sculptures? Mask? Fashion accessory? Wearable or not? For these creatives, these questions are irrelevant. They follow in the footsteps of pioneers like Martin Margiela, who as early as 2012 had his models parade with faces entirely covered in rhinestones, as well as Alexander McQueen, Iris van Herpen (with whom Judas Companion and James T. Merry have collaborated), and Rick Owens.

 

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