THE LONELY JEWELER : revealing the relationship between the making of jewelry and loneliness

Academic summary

Through a phenomenological, artistic jewelry practice, and interpretive analysis of theoretical, artistic, and subjective phenomena, I am examining and exposing the relationship between the making of jewelry and loneliness to reveal what loneliness may look and feel like as well as the possibilities for jewelry and creative practice to act as a surrogate for intimacy, touch, and, or another human body. From a first-person narrative, the maker as researcher, I am bringing loneliness to the forefront as an unnamed or concealed experience in jewelry and jewelry practice and emphasizing the significance of both as matters of social and cultural relevance in seeking human connections. And further, how any manifestations may be interpreted to construct new dimensions of being human as part of somatic and mindful inquiry in artistic research. By uncovering the overlays between emotional and physical disruptive experiences and the acts of making, the boundaries of traditional jewelry roles in the studio and in society can be expanded — which could alter not only understanding of how loneliness is considered, felt, and expressed; but also how art and craft are made within and despite its presence. If loneliness is present and is acknowledged, then the body, the studio, and the exhibition become permissible sites for the public acknowledgment and expression of loneliness as well as meaningful connections with the self and others. Thus, the making of jewelry and the jewelry artifacts can promote presence in absence and absence as presence: something entirely new for the fields of both jewelry and loneliness research.

Keywords:
jewelry, jewellery, craft, making, loneliness, romantic love, intimacy, touch, skin, surrogate

Image:
LONGING: Please Let It Be Me (back view), oxidized copper, silver,
75 x 39 x 2.5 cm, 6.5 kilos, photographer: Sigrid Kuusk, model: Taavi Teevet