Ruudt Peters
Qi
June 11 – 16, 2013
Iosis 21, 2002, pendant and brooch, silver, silk, polyester, insulation foam
3.5 x 2.5 x 2.25" pendant, 2.5 x 2.5 x 1.125" brooch
...blood-red and cut open, it is at the same time repulsive in its rawness and fascinates by its multiple layers. In these layers of silver, cotton, polyurethane film and plastic, the factor of time seems frozen. It would appear a process of fermentation has taken place: various materials have been brought together, heated, coagulated and fused with one another. The layers reveal that nothing is what it seems, that everything is constantly in flux, that nothing is the same as the moment before. Ruudt Peters has made his own stones, as stratified as real minerals. The latest jewellery is called ‘Iosis’, which means ‘the state of becoming red’. Becoming red: excitement, seduction and passion, but also shame, injury, mutilation. These are my far too simple associations. ‘Iosis’ is also a stage in the alchemistic process, as Ruudt Peters will also tell you if you ask him. Alchemy?! Was the alchemist Peters not busy reinventing his own discipline? Is he in search of immortality? How are we to understand these mysteries?
Excerpted from Not All Is What It Seems by Liesbeth den Besten, 2002
Iosis 8, 2002, pendant, silver, silk, polyester, insulation foam, 2.76 x 1.77 x 1.77 inches
Iosis 12, 2002, brooch and object, silver, silk, polyester, insulation foam, 2.56 x 1.57 x 1.3 inches
Iosis 23, 2002, pendant, silver, silk, polyester, insulation foam, 3.74 x 2.68 x 2.2 inches
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.
