SYMBIOSIS: September 30- December 3, 2017
opening event: Saturday September 30 at 6pm at Sparks Gallery in the Gaslamp district, 530 6th Ave, San Diego, CA 92101
Free Event open to all, includes drink ticket with RSVP
Jewelry Raffle to benefit Ethical Metalsmiths
Please bring friends, and wear your own wildest creations!
Sparks Gallery presents symbiosis: an original collection of works heavily informed by biology, the rich history and traditions of metalsmiths, and relationships – between people, objects, and nature. Sparks Gallery is delighted to welcome Hart and collaborator Tea Ninkovic, an inventive, LA-based couturier for this richly textured exhibition.
“This exhibition is inspired by natural symbiotic relations. In each piece, I strive to achieve an “aesthetic symbiosis” of abstract sculptural ideas, traditional jewelry forms, and the human body.
I designed each piece to act on the body as if it were a distinct organism living with its host. Each work offers the wearer and the viewer an opportunity to ask: “How do I relate to my jewelry?”
The work also dramatizes the evolution of symbiotic relationships. Each finished piece is like a fossil, a record of a stage in the evolving creative process, revealing a particular symbiotic relationship among abstract ideas, jewelry forms, and the human body. Different pieces in the same series reveal the evolution of such a symbiotic relationship.
Extinction is yet another theme. Many of my pieces are ultimately related to biological forms of formerly prolific, successful, and dramatically powerful organisms, organisms that are now extinct. They are presented therefore as a momento mori.
I am always aware of and acknowledge the rich inheritance passed on to me by my ancestral metalsmiths. I intend each piece to serve as an overt record of this inherited and evolved information. The way the piece was made remains visible and serves as a reminder of the traditional techniques employed in contemporary work.
The exhibit as a whole thus displays the intersection of 3 concurrent evolutions: traditional technique to contemporary application, raw material to finished product, conceptualization to realization.
In creating much of the work, I collaborated closely with my colleague Tea Ninkovic, a couturier. In addition, the Sparks Gallery has long encouraged the ideas expressed in this show. Special thanks also to my protégés Alex Garcia and Ben Bernstein. These collaborative efforts are another way in which the exhibit involves symbiosis.
My art has always been inspired by the marvels of life and biological science. I offer this exhibition as a tribute to the symbiotic relationship between art and science.” -Alexandra Hart
Photo: Raymond Elstad, Couture: Tea Ninkovic, Model: Laura Ricci
