Jewellery Shock

[Kathryn Wardill]

Which jewellery/body object really shocked you when you saw it, offended you, and made you think......

“I can’t believe they made/exhibited that”

Why did it push your buttons?

For positive or negative reasons, I would like to hear about it.

I am currently putting together a jewellery theory lecture to be presented in the USA in March 2010. Please respond & let me know who & why. [e-mail]

[Lorraine Cook]

Ever sat down with a home delivered pizza devouring it in junk food bliss while watching your favourite forensic cop show? For 60 minutes, minus the ads, one can happily gulp down copious carbonated, caffeine V juice, while listening to whirring machines dissecting human body parts on forensic stainless steel tables with blood and body fluids drain trays? And while one's lapping up the graphic scientifically correct gore one is also texting at least 20 messages that have nothing to do with what is being watched. Now even if I've described your favourite night of the week please don't answer yes, or no, to that question. Research has done it for us ... truth is a vast number of 'normal', middle class, thriving, well adjusted humans do exactly that at least one night per week. If you don't believe me check the ratings of favourite TV shows against the biggest pizza nights of the week. If it's not sport it's almost certainly - gore!

After digesting so much visual horror it makes this crew of 'normal' people a tough audience to grab their attention. Swamped by violent, threatening, ugly visual stimulation presented to them in games, film and television entertainment ... even a humble t-shirt now screams and compete to be the ugliest image you can conjure, well they're not going to be too excited by a nice collection of felt flowers are they?

Shock this audience - good luck. Mike Turners knows his peers, he's an artist attempting to connect with like minded. And like all art - it's intrinsic value is in the eye of the beholder and hence seeks to bond with at least one other - a buyer. In today's world he'll almost certainly find a devout following. Mike Turners creations are as fake as the fantasy and consequently rather entertaining if you have a taste for things bizarre. If not then don't go to the exhibition, try something more palatable and befitting a good nights sleep.

[Jillienne Esdaile-Watts]

Mike Turner's Parasite #4

This piece flies in the face of everything that most people find alluring about adornment, of one type or another. I am not sure what the piece actually is, but I think most viewers would find it extremely confronting given the fact that the 'victim' is a newborn child, something that is held as sanctified in civilised society as innocent, dependent, a beautiful new creation - symbolising our hopes for the future and life over death.

"What future is there for us?" the viewer would ask...."What hope?".

...is this a symbol of modern life's devouring of the beauty of creativity, the consumption of all that is sactified?