Bangkok--16 Jul--ATTA Gallery
ATTA Gallery proudly presents a Solo Exhibition
Wearable Memories: A Boat is a Boat…Is a Boat a Boat? by Mette Saabye
July 17 — August 18, 2012
ATTA Gallery, the only gallery in Thailand specializes in Contemporary Art Jewelry, proudly presents solo exhibition “Wearable Memories: A Boat is a Boat…Is a Boat a Boat?” by a Danish artist Mette Saabye from July 17 — August 18, 2012, with the Opening Reception on Tuesday July 17, 2012 between 18:30-20:30.
About Artists & Exhibition:
Mette Saabye (b. 1969) trained as a goldsmith. Her tools are the saw, the flexshaft and the pliers. She knows her material and has full control of the design process - but nevertheless, she chooses the unpredictable.
In the current work, 23 pieces of jewellery represent the identity of 23 different people. Each person has been decisive for the design of one piece. Asked to describe in writing a personal association, memory or experience with a boat, and also to document the type of boat in sketches or pictures, the respondents have conveyed Saabye with material of a deeply personal content. Based on this material she has produced a piece of jewellery for each person. The result is the representation of 23 different conceptions of the same physical thing; a boat. As the title suggests, a boat is a boat; a specific type of object in the world of physical things. But as it is added, the boat is never the same. Memories, associations, longings and personal interpretations create an almost nostalgic atmosphere that suddenly invests the anonymous designation ‘boat’ with a striking authenticity.
The concern of Saabye is to point at this common human condition of navigating between anonymous diversity and individually experienced authenticity. She points to the fact that the world is perceived according to the personal and social history of each individual, although we agree on the same linguistic constructions. Language potentially contains a personal level of profundity.
In this project everybody can be a co-creator. The artistic process can no longer be ascribed solely to the artist, but is created in the interplay between the frame set up by the artist and the social body.
Thus, Saabye represents a conceptual practice that employs the aesthetic expression only as a point of departure for a more reflective and social agenda. This practice refers rather to contemporary visual art strategies than to traditional Danish crafts, whose social agenda has been determined by the wish to provide people with aesthetic objects. Material culture, the relation between people and things, authenticity and the anchoring in physical objects are at focus. In this way, Saabye never looses neither aesthetic sensibility nor the social object of sight. She represents a practice in change that, by being reflective, aesthetic and object-based, has all the power to claim attention.
Louise Mazanti, Ph.D.
(This text was originally published in Languages - papers and exhibition 2005, (edt. Jorunn veiteberg and Louise Mazanti), Think Tank - A European Iniciative for the Applied Arts, edition 02, 2005.)
About ATTA Gallery:
ATTA Gallery, officially opened in November of 2010, is operated by A.T. Designs & Jewelry Co., Ltd. with Atinuj (Atty) Tantivit, a studio jewelry maker, as the Gallery Director. ATTA Gallery exhibits works of both new talents and well-known local and international jewelry artists. ATTA Gallery’s mission is to promote the expression of ATTA (อัตตา) or Self /Individuality of artists as well as clients through objects of wearable art. ATTA Gallery holds 6-8 solo/group exhibitions per year with the works of Gallery artists being on display at the Gallery throughout the year. Gallery hours are Tuesdays-Saturdays 12:00-19:30 and Sundays 13:00-18:30 or by appointment. ATTA Gallery closes on every Mondays and third Sunday of the month. Visit www.attagallery.com for more information on artists and exhibitions.
ATTA Gallery
Phone: 02-238-6422
Email:
[email protected] or
[email protected]
Website: www.attagallery.com