Jivan Astfalck gibt Einblick in Ihre Zeit als Artist in Residence der Jakob Bengel-Stiftung und der Fachrichtung Edelstein und Schmuck der Hochschule Trier in Idar-Oberstein.
“I make… mostly by hand using traditional goldsmithing techniques, which adapted and tunned can be used for a wide range of materials, precious and non-precious. Some of my objects are wearable, and others are tools of reference, tools for seeing and seeing better. These objects resonate with intimacy and passionate investment; they are signified by a continuous dynamic of rediscovery, recycling of meaning and appropriation. It is body adornment that exists in stark contrast to the overwhelming standardisation generated by mechanised commodity culture. In this context, my use of the assemblage as an art form in jewellery has preoccupied me for some time now, it gives me the opportunity to play with layered metaphor and create artistic representation with multi-layered meanings. The viewer can become an active part and co-creator of the meaning of the work – interpreting the objects, independent of my intentions, and by doing so adding to the layers of meaning and narrative. The objects are sites of memory and fiction, of reflection, visible traces that articulate and represent connections with the invisible and imagined in a complex web of relationships. They are romantic. The ambiguous nature of the notion of the author, the narrative incompleteness of life with the entanglement of histories, those into which we are born and those, which we invent for ourselves, it all adds to the way in which we apply fiction to life. I play with metaphorical symbolisation, and I am interested in jewellery pieces that map out the demarcation lines, where body meets world, a place, or idea of a place, where narratives are invested in objects with the aim to negotiate that gap, complexity, confusion, or conflict. Jewellery is mostly seen and understood as an embellishment to the body as subject and object – my work seeks to rectify this by examining the dialogical relationship between the body, jewellery, and its representation in visual culture, and so questioning whether jewellery is solely about making the body beautiful.
My studio practice related research activities and publications are to facilitate and enhance creative and practical projects that view design development in a narrative, performative and self-reflective context. The aim is to explore methodologies that enable the creation of new visual representation, while generating critical dissemination with reference to diverse social, cultural, and interpretative issues. For that reason, my research activities contribute to the academic understanding of the body-related object and its associated critical theory. I am interested in using hermeneutic philosophy, literary theory and other appropriate thought models as tools to investigate narrative structures embedded in body related objects. In my view, the convergence of crafts, design and fine art practices is conductive to extending the theoretical vocabulary and map out new territories where creative practices contribute to cultural production and dissemination.”
Musik:
Beginning – Alexiane: Strong LittleFriends, from Album: Into the Sun
Making – Michelle Gurevich: Show ne the Face, from the Album: Show me the face
Sphinx – GoPro Originals: Disciples
