Czech It Out
11th November - 31st January 2005
Jewellery and Sculpture from The Czech Republic
Crafts, March/April 2005 review of Czech It Out
CRAFTS
MARCH/APRIL 2005
CZECH IT OUT
Over four years in the making, this was a carefully selected survey of current work by 13 makers from the Czech Republic. Kath Libbert's predilection for Czech jewellery arose from an interest in tracing her mother's lineage within that country, and her network of friendships and expert contacts has grown gradually through visits to the republic. If we don't know very much about these artists, we shouldn't put it down to our own insularity, she says, for there are hardly any contemporary jewellery galleries in the Czech Republic, and little financial support for contemporary makers.
Blanka Sperkova (whose surname appropriately refers to jewellery in Czech) was probably the most prominent of the names here, and her predilection for grotesquely surreal black humour accorded with our preconceived notions of a typically Czech sensibility. It came as no surprise to find that Sperkova is also an illustrator and animator. With her fingers she 'knits' with thin metal wire:employing the traditional techniques of Slovak tinkers. Her digital choreography brings forth light but robust wire forms (often achieving a sculptural scale), which metamorphose to incorporate puppet-like human forms, weird beasts, hidden devils, hearts, breasts and sexual organs.
But the path of Czech art and design through the previous century has been characterised equally by a parallel strain of formal Apollonian abstraction. This persisting tendency was represented here by the youngest maker, Katerina Jancarova, whose delicate plastic 'volumes' perch on the shoulder or chest. Jaroslav Prasil's flaxen wrist bands and other fabric body ornaments were just as formal, but not overtly attention seeking. Prasil grows and spins his own flax, and his personal ethos is implicit in the deceptive simplicity of what he makes.
The work of the 13 artists in the exhibition was as varied as that of designer-makers from any modern Western economy. And yet it was surely not wishful thinking to detect here a number of undercurrents particular to the part of Middle Europe from which these objects derive. The feeling of proceeding against all odds is probably familiar in one way or another to all of these artists, and it was one that was reflected in the imaginative ways in which - as Kath Libbert put it these artists are able to 'create a lot from very little'.
Quotidian found materials wittily de-stabilised the stereotype of the preciousness of jewellery. In his attractive brooches, Petr Vogl uses rounded bars of commercial coloured soap as seating for tiny heart-shaped Bohemian garnets. Some of Jolana Novakova's silver brooches were the cast shapes of ordinary edible biscuits. Ludmila Sikolova makes her brooches from sliced-up credit cards - inspired by a visit to the USA without one - in a fashion reminiscent of the methodically displaced photocollages of Jiri Kolar.
Several of these Czech jewellers re-cycled humble beef-bones and horns - domestic detritus otherwise without value. Kamila Housova combined bone with silver to create pinned brooches, which look almost timeless. Jana Strilkova's bone and silver ornaments likewise echoed Oceanic or Central Asian museum pieces, were it not for the small photographic transparencies that some of them incorporated. Lucie Krejcova's intimate, elegant brooches juxtapose bone with things like tiny sprigs of green plastic foliage. She feels that she is struggling to rediscover this ancient, even prehistoric ornamental material in modern terms, belying its 'absolute depreciation as meat and bone meal'.
Another propensity underlying many of the pieces was the creation of playful private worlds within which to remove oneself from the privations of daily life. Marketa Sumanova, for example, hopes that her flowery neckpieces will convey the wearer to 'a little bit of a dream world - something very delicate and unreal - in contrast with everyday life, which is so real and materialistic.' We expect opportunities to acquaint ourselves, synoptically, with contemporary jewellery from other countries to come from the subsidised sector - public galleries and museums. But like the eyeopening exhibition of contemporary Catalan jewellery presented by Kath Libbert in 2002, her private gallery once again provided both an invaluable opportunity (only made commercially feasible by the Czech Republic's entry into the EU) to see new work from another European country, and an irresistible acquisition opportunity.
DAVID BRIERS
Yorkshire Post, Nov 2004 review of Czech It Out
YORKSHIRE POST
NOVEMBER 2004
REALITY CZECH
Designers from the Czech Republic show how they can create a lot from a little when their work goes on show for the first time in the UK at a gallery in Saltaire. JiII Armstrong meets Kath Libbert, who is putting on the exhibition for very personal reasons.
Kath Libbert's jewellery gallery is known for pushing the boundaries between art, jewellery design and fashion and some of the work she displays is best described as wearable art. Kath likes to spring a few surprises when she stages an exhibition and pieces she features are often created using an unusual range of materials and techniques. The latest exhibition to be staged at her gallery at Salts Mill in Saltaire has been over four years in the making and took her on a considerable voyage of discovery. It features 13 designers from the Czech Republic and there were times when Kath began to wonder if the venture would ever come to fruition. She has a personal reason for wanting to provide a platform for the work of Czech jewellers because her mother is Czech Jewish and her family lived in the same small village for hundreds of years until they were forced to leave in 1938 to escape the Nazis. Their home was in a village near Brno where her grandfather had textile mills - not unlike Saltaire and Kath went there for the first time 10 years ago. She's returned three times since then tracking down designers and once the Czech Republic joined the EU it became possible to turn her plans into reality. Kath grew up with an interest in contemporary design but her career followed a different path. She worked as a psychologist for Leeds Community Mental Health services for a number of years and opened her jewellery gallery in 1996. She left the health service four years ago to concentrate full time on the gallery and to organise some of her more adventurous exhibitions. "The Czech designers' resourcefulness and determination are borne out of circumstances," said Kath. "There is very little financial support for contemporary jewellers and hardly any contemporary jewellery galleries. I wanted to help promote this work more widely as I found it very exciting and compelling for its ingenuity and refreshing candour. The jewellery also often becomes a vehicle to communicate personal and, at times, political stories which were fascinating."
It took her a while to find the artists because there are so few outlets for their work and most of them also have regular jobs such as lecturing and teaching. "I was really excited about what I found and I wanted to give a platform to these people who are talented, creative and witty," she said. The jewellery and larger sculptural pieces in the show, called Czech It Out, have been created from materials as diverse as bone, string, glass, plastic, fishing bait and credit cards, along with the more usual precious metals and garnets which are traditionally used in Czech jewellery. The designers include Blanka Sperkova, who is known internationally as a jeweller, sculptor, illustrator and film-maker. She creates jewellery and three dimensional objects by knitting with her fingers in silver-coated copper wire. She started by knitting puppets When her children were young. Barbora Kalisova began by using classical goldsmithing techniques but moved on to different materials and technical constructions. Most recently, she has designed and made a collection of erotic bras for which the components are cut by laser or using computer led instruments.
Jana Strilkovao works with the unlikely combination of cattle bones and silver to create her unusual rings and Petr Vogl's wacky collections are made from cheap, disposable materials such as Plexiglass, fishing bait, cake cutters and soap. To say the work in this exhibition is not traditional jewellery is a considerable understatement and Kath Libbert is prepared for the fact that visitors may find some of the items challenging. She will be on hand to explain as much as she can about how the designers have been able to create a lot from very little with thoughtfulness and humour.
Czech It Out is at Kath Libbert Jewellery, Salts Mill, Saltaire, Bradford, from November 10 to January 31. To launch the exhibition, Blanka Sperkova will give a talk and film show about her work at 6pm on November 10. For more information about this, call 01274 599790.
Telegraph & Argus, November 2004 preview of Czech It Out
TELEGRAPH & ARGUS
NOVEMBER 2004
Dress it up with lots of shiny accessories
FASHION by Sally Clifford
Czech jeweller Barbora Kalisova has given the underwire bra a whole new meaning. Her erotic aluminium and steel bra promises to be a showstopper at Czech It Out, the latest exhibition showcasing foreign jewellers' talents at Kath Libbert's Jewellery Gallery in Salts Mill, Saltaire. Barbora is one of 13 Czech jewellers whose work Kath has brought to Britain. For Kath there's some sentimental attachment to her latest venture. Her mother is a Jewish Czechand her family lived in the same small village for hundreds of years until they were forced to leave in 1938 due to the Nazi threat. She has returned to her family's former home many times and is now keen to provide a platform for Czech jewellers to showcase their talents. The exhibition opens to the public on Thursday when visitors will be able to Czech out the bra as well as a wide range of other unique sculptural pieces. Bone rings and a plastic fishing wire and steel brooch are among the more unusual creations. Says Kath: "The designers' resourcefulness and determination are borne out of circumstances; there is very little financial support for contemporary jewellers in the Czech Republic and hardly any contemporary jewellery galleries. I wanted to help promote this work more widely as I found it very exciting and compelling for its ingenuity and refreshing candour. The jewellery also often becomes a vehicle to communicate personal and, at times, political stories which were fascinating. I hope the exhibition will give visitors a real taste of all of this."
Crafts, November 2004 review of Czech It Out
CRAFTS
NOVEMBER 2004
CZECH POINT
In the years since the Czech Republic became an independent state following the Velvet Revolution of 1989 and the overthrow of Soviet style Communism, there has been a new flowering of the applied arts. New Czech jewellery design tends to be playfully organic, drawing on a shared cultural past, but also subverting it. Czech It Out, a new exhibition at Saltaire's Kath Libbert Jewellery Gallery, showcases work that has never been seen in the UK before. Thirteen artists from the Czech Republic display work ranging from jewellery to larger sculptural pieces created from materials as diverse as bone, string, glass, plastic, fishing bait and credit cards - along with the precious metals and garnets of traditional jewellery - and many are characterised by a surprising inventiveness and humour. Standout pieces include knitted wire sculptures, masks and puppets by Blanka Sperkova; an insect brooch made from a plastic fly swat, accessorised with plexiglass and Bohemian garnets by Petr Vogel; and Katerina Jancarova's mobile jewellery pieces - cubes, cones and cylinders billed as 'independent objects' that can be worn attached by a simple pin. LH
Czech It Out is at the Kath Libbert Jewellery Gallery, Salts Mill, Victoria Road, Saltalre B018 3LB (01274) 599790 until 31 January 2005.
Yorkshire Journal, Winter 2004 preview of Czech It Out
YORKSHIRE JOURNAL
WINTER 2004
CZECH IT OUT
The latest exhibition to arrive at the Kath Libbert Jewellery Gallery at Salts Mill brings together work which has never been seen before in this country. Thirteen designers from the Czech Republic have collections on show, featuring the usual precious metals and gems as well as materials as diverse as bone, fishing bait and credit cards - all with a contemporary twist. Kath Libbert explained: 'One of the key themes behind Czech it Out is the designers' inventiveness, and their ability to create something beautiful from very little, with humour and thoughtfulness.' There is also a strong personal connection: Kath's mother is Czech Jewish, and her family lived in the same village for hundreds of years until forced out by the Nazis. Czech it Out runs until the 31st January.