Gesine Hackenberg, 2020, Netherlands

Blue white

Sometimes, an object from the past can be highlighted in the perspective of jewellery.
In the series Kitchen Necklaces, I use preferable antique Dutch faience plates to cut out round ceramic discs and thread them firmly to necklaces suggesting a traditional string of pearls.
These works consist of two parts: the necklace and the perforated plate. The faience plates carry stories of everyday life and meals, but also of shipping and international trade. Faience manufacturing in the Netherlands was strongly influenced by the Chinese porcelain that was imported during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the stylistic influences from history are notable even in many of the more recently produced plates I use.