Ruudt Peters
Qi
June 11 – 16, 2013
Anima Clemita, 2009, brooch, aluminum
ANIMA (2008/2010)
According to Carl Gustav Jung, Anima is the feminine in a human being. According to him, a person is both male and female. As a result of upbringing the one is developed, and the other not. Consequently a man generally develops his male side more than his female side. If the Anima in a man is underdeveloped, this hinders the man's functioning. Qualities ascribed to the Anima include: the Magna Mater (“Great Mother”), the source of life, Eros, goddess of love, seductive, beautiful, irrational, dreamy, begetter of illusions, constrained, natural, receptive, servant, prophetess, bringer of wisdom, and incorporeal.
DEVELOPMENT OF ANIMA
“If you grasp at things desirously, the beauty retreats” Augustine of Hippo
During this period in my work I have made it my goal to produce work that is not directed by reason. I let the work happen out of the subconscious, in the same way as the blind drawings. At first this was an impossible task. You want freedom, but because you are trying too hard for freedom you clench up. Initially I tried to transpose the freedom of the line technique in the blind drawing into the object. At a certain point I gave up on this because it was a disastrous course. Then by chance I poured wax into water. The wax solidified immediately in the water. The freedom of the visual language that this creates is impossible to control. It demands great meditative concentration to pour the wax into the water at precisely the right moment, and with that to also make a drawing at the same moment. You get what it is. It is a record of a second, a congealed moment in time. Each working day yields a different image. The weather and my state of mind influence the outcome, but I cannot influence the outcome as an artist. It is a movement that solidifies from the subconscious. The act generates an unknown language, a flowing line captured in solidified form.
As a consequence, it has become a quest of making and letting go, accepting what is there as opposed to what you want. Hundreds of works have been made. The atelier is full of them. Out of these some works drifted to the top which were pregnant with the story of serenity and uncontrollability. Ultimately I have been able to call these works my own. These works are then used as the basis for my jewellery. I have converted the wax forms into silver and aluminium. Some pieces are finished with a thin layer of gold, others are anodised. The resulting works are delicate, vulnerable and fragile.
I always show my work in an installation that connects with the content of my work and places the work in a spatial context. For my installation I have chosen the mirror, first of all because it is an attribute of the feminine, of Venus. The mirror is however more than that. A reflection is also elusive, like that of Narcissus in the water, like the wax that solidifies in the water. With this, for me things come full circle. In the SOFA Solo by Ornamentum Gallery 15 round mirrors hang randomly in space on long steel rods. The jewellery is mounted on the mirrors. The reflections among them produce a bewildering and poetic image.
Ruudt Peters, 1 March, 2010
Anima Eva, 2009, brooch, silver, gold plate
Anima Dela, brooch, 2010, anodized aluminum
Ornamentum Installation at SOFA NY Fair
Ornamentum Installation at SOFA NY Fair
Ornamentum Installation at SOFA NY Fair
Ornamentum Installation at SOFA NY Fair
Beginning in the 1970's, Ruudt Peters, a pioneering Dutch conceptual jewellery artist, challenged traditional definitions of adornment by pushing the boundaries of context, wearability, materials and presentation. A leader in art jewellery in Holland, Peters exemplifies a mode of expression that is unmistakably Dutch.
He has exerted a strong influence on the development of contemporary jewellery as an artist and as a professor at some of the most prestigious universities in Europe, the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and Konstfack University of Arts and Crafts in Stockholm, where he was teaching till 2009. At the moment Peters is professor at Alchimia Contemporary Jewellery school, Florence, Italy
CODA Museum, Appeldorn, NL
through January 28, 2018
CODA Museum presents a retrospective of the works of visual artist and jewellery designer Ruudt Peters in the exhibition BRON (Source). BRON gives an overview of Peters’ rebellious jewellery from the early seventies to the more profound works based on the exploration of other cultures, customs and habits from a more recent period. His work is exhibited in a special multimedia installation that offers a unique view on his oeuvre.
Work from the permanent collection of the Stedlijk Museum including Ornamentum artists Iris Eichenberg, Ruudt Peters, Gerd Rothmann and Tarja Tuupanen on exhibition.
Pictured: exhibition view including Passio Senouda by Ruudt Peters. Two of these works were created, one is in the Stedelijk Collection, one is at Ornamentum.
