#5 Social Club Members Newsletter
Dear Social Club members!
Welcome to the summer edition of our Members Newsletter! We're excited to bring you fresh and engaging editorial features that dive into crucial topics such as sustainability/toxicity, and the fascinating world of Chinoiserie. Dive in and enjoy the best reads and listens we've curated just for you this month!
TOXIC TRANSITS
Interview with Conversation Piece.
In the Hagströmer Medico-Historical Library on the outskirts of Stockholm, eight artists curated by Beatrice Brovia and Nicolas Cheng exhibited their work this spring in a transdisciplinary dialogue with a selection of historical books ranging from botany, metallurgy, and geology to toxicology.
Trans-, inter-, or multidisciplinary practices and methodologies are currently widely discussed concepts at the forefront of art, craft, and design. But how does true transdisciplinary research materialise in an exhibition? Some answers can be found in the recent show Toxic Transits curated by Conversation Piece, an artist duo Brovia-Cheng, who extended the questions informing their common artistic practice into an exhibition concept, merging a historical site, the Hagströmer Medico-Historical Library, with contemporary jewellery.
Read the full interview here (Opens in a new window).
I, TOO, SEE POTENTIAL IN MY OWN THINGIFICATION
Essay by Isabel Wang Pontoppidan
I first chanced upon the term ‘chinoiserie’ four years ago. That little word, so whimsical, wormed its way into my brain. It meant more or less what I had intuited.
As a person of mixed Chinese and Danish ethnicity, I have come to find kinship in chinoiserie objects. When I scroll through the wealth of search engine images depicting intricately ornamented lacquered cabinets, decorative wallpaper, and gaily coloured porcelain, I feel a familial resonance: ‘I am that folding screen with gilded ornaments,’ I think to myself, ‘I am that wooden bed frame decorated with dragons and peonies.’ Simultaneously distinctly Asian and distinctly European and neither, chinoiserie is a hybrid style. Defined by an elaborate, decorative appeal to the exotic and spectacular, the chinoiserie objects are shiny surfaces in which I can glimpse my own reflection.
Read the full essay here (Opens in a new window).
MINING FOR SOLUTIONS
A podcast about sustainability.
During OBSESSED!, a biannual jewellery festival, galleries across the Netherlands open their doors to the jewellery crowd, hosting exhibitions, lectures and discussions. Last November, an important panel discussion titled 𝑴𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝑺𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 took place at the Fashion For Good museum in central Amsterdam, unpacking questions of sustainability.
Organised by Current Obsession, the event brought together different practitioners from textile, fashion and jewellery, to discuss what makes a sustainable practices effective. Panel speakers included jewellery artist and educator at Central St. Martins, Katharina Dettar; Co-founder of Fibershed NL and longtime fashion professional, Stijntje Jaspers; Jaime Valderrama, Bogota-based brand representative for the Fairmined initiative and the Alliance for Responsible Mining; and award-winning artist and recent graduate of the Royal Academy of Antwerp, Mariel Matute.
In the latest episode of Undisciplined, we have invited Margaret Munchheimer, a multifaceted jewellery maker, podcaster and writer, to host this conversation and share her research, interviews, and speak on some of the most important questions related to mining of precious metals and stones, fast fashion and where to start in your own practice to become more responsible and sustainable maker.
Listen to the full episode here (Opens in a new window).
As always, we would love to hear from you in case you have any membership related questions at veronika@current-obsession.com (Opens in a new window)!
