Celestial Eyes
After 15 years of working with used camera lenses, I wanted to create my own original lens shape, so I collaborated with a lens company to develop it. I examined over 1,000 lenses and discovered around 10,000 shapes, and eventually found a unique form that produces a 3D hologram-like effect at its center. When I saw this, I felt as if I had created a "small cosmos."
My new series, Celestial Eyes, uses laboratory quartz, the clearest and hardest material for lenses, and is inspired by astronomy, mythology, and spirituality. A transformative experience on the coast of Rye, Australia, where I physically felt the Earth's spherical nature and the vastness of the universe, strongly influenced this work.
The lens shape is formed by cutting overlapping spheres. I coat the backs with mirror, gold, or PVD, and I also experiment with fluorescent colors derived from phosphorus, symbolizing "things that carry light." Through this process, I have created my own celestial body and transformed it into jewelry.
Jiro Kamata
Ornamentum’s relationship with Jiro Kamata began in the late 1990’s, when Laura and Stefan knew him as a school colleague in Pforzheim, Germany. Kamata’s studies continued at the Munich Academy of Art and he was one of the first artists to join the gallery when they opened Ornamentum in 2002 while he was still working towards earning his MFA. The evolution of Jiro Kamata’s explorations of light, shadow and reflection in jewelry, object and artworks has been fully documented at Ornamentum throughout the years, leading to numerous museum acquisitions and works entering countless private collections- with prominent displays at fairs bringing wider attention to Kamata’s work.
Celestial Eyes is Jiro Kamata’s 5th exhibition with Ornamentum.
