People Will Stare, A Solo Exhibition Of Rings By Esteemed Adornment Artist Karl Fritsch

Season is honoured to present People Will Stare, a solo exhibition of rings by esteemed adornment artist Karl Fritsch.

Fritsch manipulates ideas of preciousness, desire, convention, and taste. His idiosyncratic rings, growing out of or reworking pre-existing pieces, are highly coveted. They have made him a cult figure in the world of contemporary jewellery and have garnered him numerous awards. In 2006, he received the prestigious Françoise van den Bosch Award, presented every other year to a jeweller of international standing by an independent jury. This year, he was a finalist in the influential LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize. He has collaborated with a range of other makers, including furniture designer Martino Gamper and artist Francis Upritchard.

Born in 1962, Fritsch began his training at Pforzheim Goldsmith and Watchmaking School and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. He has taught in art schools and participated in exhibitions worldwide. His work is held in the collections of museums and galleries of note, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the National Gallery of Victoria, Naarm Melbourne; and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. He lives and works in Te Whanganui-a-Tara with his wife, artist Lisa Walker.

ARTIST STATEMENT

What I find really fascinating, and one of the reasons why it’s so interesting to make jewellery, is the moment of recognition when something that comes across as cute and pretty has on second glimpse an almost obscene grotesqueness. I would say this quality probably works best in jewellery, where politeness and cold-blooded anger can clash mercilessly into one another.

I see parallels in my approach to jewellery and the growth of the rata tree. These trees start life as an epiphyte in the branches of another tree. As it grows the epiphyte rata sends roots down to the ground. It eventually replaces the host tree when it dies. More than 20 years ago I began using conventional jewellery pieces as a grounding material in my work. Like the epiphyte rata I added my attachment in gold or silver, nestling in or on a ring and also growing over entire pieces of jewellery.

The ring is desperate, desperate to find a finger, desperate to tell you: I love you, I am beautiful, I am rich, I am cool, I hate you, I come from Ireland or Austria, I want more, I have enough, I am married, I am funny, I am scary, stupid, important, I can’t help you. I am.

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