I stumbled across this site, Velvet da Vinci, through an Ebay auction for a ring that had been in one of their exhibits in 2004, 200 Rings (which is fascinating…).

The latest exhibit at this San Francisco art jewellery/metal work gallery was Seth Papac.  This coat rack brooch is witty and cleverly made, and in keeping with his artist statement on the site, which notes that,

“My interest in jewelry as a medium of art is its site – the body. Much as the function of architecture is to house, to display and protect paintings and sculpture, the body acts as a literal, metaphorical and conceptual structure for jewelry. Placed on this site, jewelry acts as a personal signifier of taste, attitude, belief and history.

The formal and compositional focus is targeted at an investigation and interpretation of parures, a term from Old French for a set of various items of matching jewelry, which rose to popularity in early 17th century Europe. Cleverly the parure was modular and could be disassembled into different parts or easily remade to stay fashionable. An inherent narrative is created through this interchangeability. How does a collection of objects interact? How does this change when the collective group is disassembled? How does this disassembly affect the overall narrative?”

More of his work can be seen here.