Gallery S O is pleased to present an exhibition catalogue by leading contemporary jeweller Bettina Speckner.
The exhibition comprises work made from different photographic techniques, including photo-etchings on zinc, Tintypes and Alutypes.
The photo-etching on zinc plates technique comes from an old printing process, the Heliogravure. Bettina Speckner selects pictures which convey a sense of timelessness, mostly using photos taken by herself and occasionally found ones.
The Tintype (Ferrotype) was invented in the US at the end of the 19th century, after the Daguerreotype. The technique is also called (wet-plate collodium photography). It is a direct positive method, meaning that the object is directly exposed onto the metal plate. Speckner transforms into jewellery old plates which were given to her or found at flea-markets or antique stores. Ferrotypes were mostly used for portraits, an aspect that fascinates the artist: “they are always different, peculiar, they tell me new secrets, new stories, and even I don’t know who the subjects are, nor their backgrounds. I try to express the extraordinariness of the portrayed people.”
Alutypes are Ferrotypes made using aluminium as a base. In 2015 Speckner met somebody who still knew how to make a Ferrotype, resulting in one-of-a-kind photo-plates, which the artist calls “photo-objects”. The relatively long exposure time (4 to 30 sec.) gives them a special character, conveying a different kind of stillness, an even stiller reality.
Bettina Speckner lives and works in Übersee (Bavaria) Germany. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich with Prof. H. Sauerbruch and was a quest student of Daniel Spoerri. Later she changed to the jewellery class with Prof. Herman Jünger and with Prof. Otto Künzli. Her work is regularly exhibits in Europe and the USA. Bettina Speckner was awarded with many prizes and grants throughout her career.