Manon van Kouswijk

"For all I know the galaxy is a necklace and planet earth a giant bead"
Manon van Kouswijk

"Hanging Around / The Pearlchain Principle" is an artist book that is based on a selection of Manon van Kouswijk's beaded necklaces of the last 15 years, including a series of recent ones.  The photography of the necklaces is based on the diverse display traditions of beaded necklaces, ranging from the jeweller's window display to images of necklaces on an auction website.  These full colour pictures are shown in the context of a large image archive in which the various aspects of the beaded necklace come to the fore; the thread, the knots, the beads as particles, the repetition, the necklace as a system, as a language, and the 'visual synonyms'; all kinds of things in which the basic principle of a bead necklace is recognisable, but which, in fact, are not necklaces.  By showing these images alongside the actual necklaces, the possibillity is there to see each bead necklace as an all-embracing piece of information played out on all kinds of levels - from a supernova in the universe to the smallest particle of tangible matter.

Text contributions by Pravu Mazumdar and Marjan Unger