What makes contemporary jewelry unique? What are the singular characteristics that distinguish these objects and practices from other forms of visual arts? One way to answer this is to consider the spaces in which contemporary jewelry circulates. It inhabits not only the walls and plinths of museums, but also the private spaces of collectors’ drawers and the body as it moves through the public spaces of the street. Much of the energy in discussions about contemporary jewelry comes from having to take these different contexts into account. In this talk, Damian Skinner shows that contemporary jewelry is never just an object that can be divorced from the spaces in which it is encountered and the sites of production where all those involved in contemporary jewelry (makers, dealers, collectors, educators, writers, curators, users, and so on) manufacture the various forms of evidence that together make up the field.
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Sponsored by Pratt Institute and Art Jewelry Forum.
