Last Orders: Gallery S O London
Last Orders is an exhibition of new work by nine jewellery students from the Royal College of Art, London, the Akademie der Bildenden Kunste, Munich (Munich Academy) and Hiko Mizuno College, Tokyo, at the recently opened Gallery S O in London from 18 to 20 March 2010.
Last Orders shows the vastly differing approaches to jewellery from a contemporary group of young, international designer-makers. Many of the students have exhibited world wide, this will be the first time this new generation of jewellery artists will be showing work together in London. Several pieces are made from unconventional materials such as breast milk, beetles, pig skin and cow intestine. These objects challenge the traditions of making and create new dialogues within the language of jewellery, how it is worn and what it represents.
The exhibition is the final event in the 2009/10 Three Schools Project, which was founded in 1993 by world-renowned jewellery designers, Professor Otto Künzli (Munich), President Takahiko Mizuno and Professor Kazuhiro Itho (Hiko Mizuno) and Professor Joke Brakman (Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam). The project aims to take the lead in shaping the field of contemporary jewellery design. Students are selected to participate by making work that shows conceptual ideas or technical skill, and to encourage future generations of makers to further push the boundaries of jewellery design. This is the first year that students from the RCA's Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork and Jewellery MA course have been asked to participate. The other stages of the project took place in Tokyo in October 2009, followed by Munich in February 2010 at the Pinakothek der Moderne during Schmuck 2010.
The overriding theme of the 2009-2010 Project is 'Living Treasures'. A term selected by Professor Künzli, which refers to the Japanese practice of designating certain individuals who embodied intangible national cultural values as living human treasures, particularly in the field of the ancient protected crafts. The students chosen to participate this year are: Christopher Thompson Royds, Jasleen Kaur and Marta Mattsson from the RCA; Alexander Blank, Eunmi Chun and Stefan Heuser from Munich Academy; Hajime Matsuo, Mari Iwamoto and Masayuki Nagata from Hiko Mizuno Tokyo.
