Böcker av Ellen Maurer Zilioli

"From Jewellery to Contextual Art" presents the work of the artist and professor Elisabeth Holder and showcases her unique evolution. Coming from a classical goldsmithing background, she placed jewelry in relation to ancient signs and the ornamentation that emerged from them, pursuing the examination of materials in the charged arena between mastery and dialogue, and posing the fundamental question of what jewelry is and can be. This led to a paradigm shift. Jewelry was recontextualized. Illustrated with examples from fields such as architecture and nature, it becomes clear that such jewelry forms are never excessive and are at once Contextual art.

Contemporary gold- and silversmithing encompasses a vast range. Increasingly, a daring, (self-)critical, and inventive scene is edging its way to the fore, focusing on challenging the innovative expansion of classical forms and motifs of jewelry, vessels, and hollowware. Purpose, function, and our normative understanding of beauty are placed on a new footing through experiments with materials and performative stagings. Socially relevant considerations and artistic references inform the objects' designs and are an invitation to an entertaining yet recondite "tour de plaisir" featuring 120 works by 29 artists-proof once more of gold- and silversmithing's controversial creative potential today.

The publication gives a first in-depth account of Silke Trekel's development, of the dialogue between abstraction and ornamental tradition that is a key factor in her work.

Ulla and Martin Kaufmann have developed their aesthetic agenda together. The techniques used by gold and silversmiths are the focal point of their work and represent the basic thematic focus of their tableware, jewellery and cutlery. It rests on their exploratory approach to materials and the diverse possibilities it provides for expression.