5th July - 1st September 2002

An Exhibition of Calalan Jewellery Part of an Exchange Project showing British work at Hipotesi Gallery in Barcelona 13th June - 15th August '02

CRAFTS - November/December 2002

DISTINTO-DISTINCT

Kath Libbert Jewellery, Bradford

5 July - 1 September 2002

Catalogue: £3 + p&p

Distinto-Distinct was an exchange project between Kath Libbert of Kath Libbert Jewellery in Saltaire and Maria Lluisa Sameranch, owner of the Hipotesi Gallery in Barcelona. Drawing on their own preferences and reflecting the foci of their respective galleries, the work of six British jewellers - Jessica Briggs, Christina Hirst, Kathryn Marchbank, Jo McAllister, Dot Sim and Sarah Stafford - were exhibited in Barcelona while the work of six Catalan jewellers was shown in Saltaire.

In comparison with the more design-led work of the British jewellers, the Catalan work appeared to be much more idiosyncratic. Xavier Ines Monclus integrates images of popular culture, reminiscent of childhood toys and characters in comics, into surreal and often funny combinations. The ambiguity thus achieved . between figuration and ornament is carefully balanced and visually intriguing. The playful aspect of the work was well contained in the collage-like appearance of the pieces. It communicated a thoughtful approach to design, while still considering the kaleidoscopic appearance of images in a post-modern culture.

Judging from the work and supported by the artists' statements all six jewellers have a strong investment in the storytelling aspect of jewellery. Even Montserrat Marin, whose work is abstract, states that the play between emotive qualities, the rational and the sensory are important to her. She created a range of circular silver jewellery pieces, playing with different levels and silver-gold juxtapositions, though my feeling was that the partial surface treatment with gold leaf was not altogether successful, creating conflict between the flaky appearance of the leaf and the clarity of the white metal surfaces. The appearance of the gold needed to be developed three-dimensionally into an almost fur-like appearance. Only then would it have made the strong aesthetic statement which was needed to succinctly communicate the artistic ideas behind the work.

Carmen Amador's work was aesthetically very different. Here the traces of the making process and the tentative appearance of the work was controlled and handled with intention. Amador's delicate objects look as if they could be means of transport, only that the sort of travel she has in mind is in the imagination or in dreams. Like little machines from a Jules Verne story, these objects are delightful inventions, wonderfully ornate and poetic.

The allegorical aspect of storytelling was strongest in Grego Garcia Tebar's work. Her postcardsized wooden boxes framed mixed media collages: found and made parts are brought into a visual context to symbolise subjective narratives. Pieces such as these demand good titles, to offer the viewer an interpretative pathway into the work. Unfortunately, these titles had not been exhibited alongside the work and so one was left with a purely visual appreciation. Alongside, Garcia Tebar exhibited a range of pearl necklaces extending the traditional format of the pearl design: these I found particularly beautiful. Silvia Piva's work was accompanied by a carefully choreographed video, which communicated far better than any written statement her concern with movement and fragility. In a landscape of sea, sand and stone she placed objects made of fine black wire, studded with pearls or stones, which appeared light and vulnerable; wire cages were holding or maybe entrapping dried roses and pearls. Without the contextualising support of the video, I would have missed much of the depth in this work and it made me aware again how difficult it is to transpose sensual artistic agendas to the jewellery display case. The placing of narrative objects in abstract wire structures was also, if in a very different way, the theme in Milena Trujillo's work. Here tiny plastic figures inhabited small worlds made of ornate wirework. The objects described places where people come to rest quite peacefully, places between reality and fantasy. This sense of transition was beautifully captured in the pendants, where these little imaginary worlds, suspended from the neck in mid-air, travelled along the ribbons and chains, which were holding them.

JIVAN ASTFALCK

Selected highlights of the British work will be at Kath Libbert Jewellery, Salts Mill, Victoria Road, Saltaire, West Yorkshire BD18 3LB, (01274) 599790, from 1 October - 5 November 2002.

LEEDS GUIDE July 2002

Eccentrinkets
A slice of Barcelona comes to Saltaire
Jewellery by six Catalan designers comes to Kath Libbert Jewellery Gallery in Saltaire this month as part of an exchange with the renowned Hipotesi Gallery in Barcelona. Xavier Ines' brooches could either be seen as "jewellery to play with or toys to wear". Designs include his Golden Retriever with Christmas tree, beach ball and toy train or his giraffe with a doll's house for a torso and palm tree for a tail.
Silvia Piva's 18ct gold neckpieces and rings encase real roses and pearls to conjure up the magic of these sensuous and precious love tokens. Grego Garcia Tabar exhibits mixedmedia neckpieces which she describes as "stories in another format [. . .] innermost stories made real". Her 'I ate it because it was mine' plays with religious iconography, almost shrine-like with its tiny white flowers and gilded frame.
Alongside this are Carmen Amador's 18ct gold and silver brooches in the form of boats, linear minimalism from Montse Marin and Milena Acosta's oxidised silver and enamel brooches and earrings inspired by "everyday corners inhabited by transitory inhabitants".
The show reveals the contrasts between contemporary British and Catalan jewellery, namely, as Maria Lluisa Sameranch (owner of Hipotesi Gallery) observes, the difference between the Britons' subtlety and sobriety and the more baroque and less restrained Hispanic designs.
4 July to 1 September, Kath Libbert Jewellery Gallery, Saltaire
Rich Jevons

FINDINGS

The Association for Contemporary Jewellery's quarterly newsletter

April 2002

Barcelona Exchange

'Distinto - Distinct', an exchange exhibition of contemporary Catalan and British Jewellery between Kath Libbert Jewellery at Salts Mill and Hipotesi Gallery, Barcelona.

We trailed this initiative in an earlier Findings, and here Kath Libbert tells us all about its progress. KLJ, based at Salts Mill near Bradford since 1996, has initiated an exciting exchange project with the renowned jewellery gallery Hipotesi in Barcelona. It is a 'selected favourites' show chosen by the two gallery owners, Kath and Maria Lluisa Samaranch, with each other's taste in mind - a very enjoyable collaboration both face to face (Kath has been out twice to Hipotesi) and through sending each other images each thinks will excite the other. The title was chosen to emphasize a key objective which is to present visitors with work which is particularly Distinto - Distinct. The final selection of six British and six Spanish (mainly Catalan) jewellers was made together with Maria Lluisa during Kath's visit to Hipotesi last November, and consists of the following: Spanish - Carmen Amador, Grego Garcia, Xavier Ines, Montse Marin, Silvia Piva and Milena Trujillo; British - Jessica Briggs, Christina Hirst, Jo McAlister, Kathryn Marchbank, Dot Sim, Sarah Stafford. The British work will be on show at Hipotesi from 13 June to 15 August and the Catalan work will be at KLJ from 4 July to 31 August. A colour catalogue will accompany the exhibition, focusing in particular on the processes each maker has gone through in the production of their pieces.

Another aspect of the project will be making the most of the learning possibilities within the cultural exchange. All six British jewellers will go out to Barcelona to attend the preview event for their work at Hipotesi and then participate in a day of joint presentations in the jewellery department at the Scuola Massana, the prestigious art college in Barcelona. Visits to other jewellery galleries will also take place. The Crafts Council has kindly given financial support to the production of the catalogue and to the costs of the British jewellers' visits to Barcelona. It has always been envisaged that the Catalan makers would attend the preview at Salts Mill and make presentations and workshops there, and Kath is currently trying to raise further funding for this, in collaboration with the Yorkshire Craft Centre via Yorkshire Arts, to enable this part of the project to take place, as there is so much interest here from local jewellers and from regular gallery customers.

Finally, for those of you unable to hop on a cheap flight to Barcelona, there will be an opportunity to see selected highlights of the British show at KLJ at Salts Mill during October 2002.

ARTSCENE September 2002

Review: Kath Libbert Jewellery
Work by six Catolan jewellers from Barcelona's Hipotesi Gallery seem to glow in the corner of Kath Libbert's showroom and draw every visitor in. Grego Garcia Tebar in particular (if the writer had the money, she'd buy THE LOT) is exquisite, quirky, colourful. As well as pendants and earrings, she has produced wooden boxes which work like gorgeous shrines to tiny animals.
Carmen Amador has produced beautiful, wearable brooches that look like little boots made out of shells and fine gold wire; Milena Acosta is obsessed with tiny gilded cages with even tinier figures inside; Xavier lnes Monclus has playful, cartoony animals and objects in his attractive work. And Silvia Piva makes jewellery that look like talismans - very feminine and sexy (flowers in cages or fine wires threaded with tiny beads). Montserrat Marin's jewellery is more restrained and geometric than her co-exhibitors - but it still looks warm and extrovert compared with the British exhibits. Is Kath Libbert Jewellery too good for Bradford? Or for Yorkshire? You do ask yourself if the people with money have any taste or sense of adventure at all. But a big 10 out of 10 to Kath Libbert for her hard work, vision and enterprise.
DG
The exhibition by six Catalan makers concludes at Kath Libbert Jewellery, Salts Mill, Saltaire Nr. Bradford on September 1st, although some pieces are liable to continue to be available Tel. 01274 599790

Distinto-Distinct

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