“I aim to walk that fine line between making something simple enough
that one unavoidably recognizes, that simultaneously requires a fair
conscious effort to get beyond the obvious, and at the same time to be
abstract enough that it allows a shift to happen, that the piece becomes
something altogether new when it unpredictably connects with you.”
- David Bielander
Award-winning jewellery artist David Bielander takes the familiarity of
everyday mundane items into wearable pieces of art that are decidedly
deceptive yet witty at the same time. Bielander Wellpappe series of
collection explores the concept of false identity - these hastily put-together cardboard
bracelets are actually made of silver and white
gold, even down to the finest details such as staples to fasten, patinated
surface and corrugated edges. This awe-inspiring collection is to be seen to believe, how
something so simple, so childhood evoking, becomes a piece of art that will remain in jewellery enthusiasts consciousness for a while to come.
galleryfunaki.com.au
David
Bielander's creations are inspired by the everyday world, by things
that have stayed with him or that come from the collective consciousness
of our society. Once the object is placed on a person, it reveals its
potential as a personal jewellery item.
This kind of ambiguity is
an integral part of all his designs. In 2002, after training as a
goldsmith in Basel, he completed his master's degree at the Akademie der
Bildenden Künste in Munich under Otto Künzli. The influence of his
teacher can readily be recognised - a rounded, many-faceted education
expressed in a sure knowledge of materials and in skilled craftsmanship.
His creations are distinct, to a certain degree, from traditional
decorative art. They retain their function as ornaments, but the
downright banal character of these everyday shapes is startling. A
silver slug to be worn as a brooch? A bracelet shaped like a tyre? A
necklace of wooden weisswurst?
The last of these objects is a good
example of the way David Bielander works. The sausage elements are
based on the armrests of Thonet's No. 14 Chair - not because the
artist's intention is to create an homage to a classic design or because
he happens to like the chair, but because the armrests possess
precisely the correct shape and curvature. Bielander adds that the
sausages were in fact always present in the chair, and that what he has
done is to ‘liberate' them!
For the ‘Mistkäfer' (dung beetle) he
again makes use of an existing shape: a steel teaspoon. In this case,
nothing was cut away; instead, the whole spoon was transformed into a
perfect dung beetle, complete with legs, wings and a proboscis, by
cutting into and bending its metal. This is a process that we associate
with magic tricks - but David Bielander performs it to perfection.
Where
David Bielander is involved, nothing is as it seems. The artist
free-associates objects, forms, colours and everyday scenes. He
simultaneously maintains abstraction and sufficient simplicity, leaving
us free to make our own interpretation. His decorative items, however,
are always made to be worn, and to be becoming to the wearerDavid Bielander worked as an apprentice goldsmith in
Basel and worked for the industrial designer and jewellery maker Georg
Spreng before studying under professor Otto Künzli at the Academy of
Fine Arts, Munich. In 2006 he became the Artistic Assistant to Professor
Daniel Kruger at the Academy of Fine Arts Burg Giebichenstein, Halle,
Germany and in 2011, an external consultant to the jewellery department
at Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. Bielander takes the
familiarity of everyday objects and combines them with a witty
abstraction to create truly uncanny pieces of wearable art. His work has
seen him win numerous awards including the Herbert Hoffmann Prize in
2010 and the Francoise van den Bosch Award in 2012. His work is held in
many public collections including the Fond National des Arts
Contemporain, France, the CODA Museum, Apeldoorn, the Neue Sammlung,
Munich and the National Gallery of Victoria. Bielander lives and works
in Munich where he currently shares a studio with fellow represented
artists Yutaka Minegishi and Helen Britton.
David
Bielander's creations are inspired by the everyday world, by things
that have stayed with him or that come from the collective consciousness
of our society. Once the object is placed on a person, it reveals its
potential as a personal jewellery item.
This kind of ambiguity is
an integral part of all his designs. In 2002, after training as a
goldsmith in Basel, he completed his master's degree at the Akademie der
Bildenden Künste in Munich under Otto Künzli. The influence of his
teacher can readily be recognised - a rounded, many-faceted education
expressed in a sure knowledge of materials and in skilled craftsmanship.
His creations are distinct, to a certain degree, from traditional
decorative art. They retain their function as ornaments, but the
downright banal character of these everyday shapes is startling. A
silver slug to be worn as a brooch? A bracelet shaped like a tyre? A
necklace of wooden weisswurst?
The last of these objects is a good
example of the way David Bielander works. The sausage elements are
based on the armrests of Thonet's No. 14 Chair - not because the
artist's intention is to create an homage to a classic design or because
he happens to like the chair, but because the armrests possess
precisely the correct shape and curvature. Bielander adds that the
sausages were in fact always present in the chair, and that what he has
done is to ‘liberate' them!
For the ‘Mistkäfer' (dung beetle) he
again makes use of an existing shape: a steel teaspoon. In this case,
nothing was cut away; instead, the whole spoon was transformed into a
perfect dung beetle, complete with legs, wings and a proboscis, by
cutting into and bending its metal. This is a process that we associate
with magic tricks - but David Bielander performs it to perfection.
Where
David Bielander is involved, nothing is as it seems. The artist
free-associates objects, forms, colours and everyday scenes. He
simultaneously maintains abstraction and sufficient simplicity, leaving
us free to make our own interpretation. His decorative items, however,
are always made to be worn, and to be becoming to the wearer.
David
Bielander's creations are inspired by the everyday world, by things
that have stayed with him or that come from the collective consciousness
of our society. Once the object is placed on a person, it reveals its
potential as a personal jewellery item.
This kind of ambiguity is
an integral part of all his designs. In 2002, after training as a
goldsmith in Basel, he completed his master's degree at the Akademie der
Bildenden Künste in Munich under Otto Künzli. The influence of his
teacher can readily be recognised - a rounded, many-faceted education
expressed in a sure knowledge of materials and in skilled craftsmanship.
His creations are distinct, to a certain degree, from traditional
decorative art. They retain their function as ornaments, but the
downright banal character of these everyday shapes is startling. A
silver slug to be worn as a brooch? A bracelet shaped like a tyre? A
necklace of wooden weisswurst?
The last of these objects is a good
example of the way David Bielander works. The sausage elements are
based on the armrests of Thonet's No. 14 Chair - not because the
artist's intention is to create an homage to a classic design or because
he happens to like the chair, but because the armrests possess
precisely the correct shape and curvature. Bielander adds that the
sausages were in fact always present in the chair, and that what he has
done is to ‘liberate' them!
For the ‘Mistkäfer' (dung beetle) he
again makes use of an existing shape: a steel teaspoon. In this case,
nothing was cut away; instead, the whole spoon was transformed into a
perfect dung beetle, complete with legs, wings and a proboscis, by
cutting into and bending its metal. This is a process that we associate
with magic tricks - but David Bielander performs it to perfection.
Where
David Bielander is involved, nothing is as it seems. The artist
free-associates objects, forms, colours and everyday scenes. He
simultaneously maintains abstraction and sufficient simplicity, leaving
us free to make our own interpretation. His decorative items, however,
are always made to be worn, and to be becoming to the wearer
David
Bielander's creations are inspired by the everyday world, by things
that have stayed with him or that come from the collective consciousness
of our society. Once the object is placed on a person, it reveals its
potential as a personal jewellery item.
This kind of ambiguity is
an integral part of all his designs. In 2002, after training as a
goldsmith in Basel, he completed his master's degree at the Akademie der
Bildenden Künste in Munich under Otto Künzli. The influence of his
teacher can readily be recognised - a rounded, many-faceted education
expressed in a sure knowledge of materials and in skilled craftsmanship.
His creations are distinct, to a certain degree, from traditional
decorative art. They retain their function as ornaments, but the
downright banal character of these everyday shapes is startling. A
silver slug to be worn as a brooch? A bracelet shaped like a tyre? A
necklace of wooden weisswurst?
The last of these objects is a good
example of the way David Bielander works. The sausage elements are
based on the armrests of Thonet's No. 14 Chair - not because the
artist's intention is to create an homage to a classic design or because
he happens to like the chair, but because the armrests possess
precisely the correct shape and curvature. Bielander adds that the
sausages were in fact always present in the chair, and that what he has
done is to ‘liberate' them!
For the ‘Mistkäfer' (dung beetle) he
again makes use of an existing shape: a steel teaspoon. In this case,
nothing was cut away; instead, the whole spoon was transformed into a
perfect dung beetle, complete with legs, wings and a proboscis, by
cutting into and bending its metal. This is a process that we associate
with magic tricks - but David Bielander performs it to perfection.
Where
David Bielander is involved, nothing is as it seems. The artist
free-associates objects, forms, colours and everyday scenes. He
simultaneously maintains abstraction and sufficient simplicity, leaving
us free to make our own interpretation. His decorative items, however,
are always made to be worn, and to be becoming to the wearer
