I'm an enormous fan of Kobi Bosshard's work; I bitterly regret not being around 30 or 40 years ago to start amassing pieces then (especially when I look at what Te Papa has). I don't think I've posted about something I've bought, but I'm going to make an exception for the Bosshard necklace I collected today.
Very occasionally, I get to have a pure gut reaction to something, and it's amazing. I had one at the NGV in Melbourne, walking round a corner and discovering a Cattelan, and laughing aloud in surprise and joy. I had one when I wept at a Webstock conference as Rives performed. I had one when I finished Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses.
And I had one when I put on the Bosshard necklace. Like the Christian sacramentals, the necklace is designed to be worn with one piece on the chest and the other below the nape of the neck. When you settle the two (heavy silver) pieces in place, they seem drawn to each other - it's like being pressed between a pair of hands. It is the most physical reaction I've ever had to a piece of jewellry, and as I write this now, wearing the necklace, I realise this pure reaction will always be there.
1 comment:
Wow, my gut reaction was I felt ill looking at all that painstakingly hand-created jewellery locked away in a (museum) vault. It almost seems pointless taking the time to craft jewellery that will fit and look good on a wrist or finger or neck or wherever if, in fact, it will never actually be worn there! What if a museum had bought your piece instead of you - no one would ever know (just from looking at it) of its possibility of creating a physical reaction.
Of course it's great we can now at least see inside the vault (online catalogues), but maybe we need to go one step further and have a 'wear-in' every so often?
2D art can almost be adequately represented online, static 3D sculpture sometimes can, but some art can only really ever be experienced.
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