Bücher von 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.