IRIS TSANTE
ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
I consider jewelry as a process of exploring ways to define the senses of “beauty” and “value” in reference to memories of significant objects and the subsequent human/social connections related to them. It is a dialectic process since it involves the direct or non-direct, or even silent communication between maker, wearer and viewer.
My pieces provide connotations of optimism, lightness, simplicity, joy and innocence, revealing on the same time qualities such as fragility and vulnerability. They often are characterized by a “mischiefing” tendency, sometimes in harmony with the qualities of the original materials and sometimes making contradicting statements upon more “formal” and “serious” symbols of the western dress code.
The basic and fundamental source of inspiration for my works is my own memory. Interesting is the fact that the memories/experiences themselves do not have a unique meaning and substance, they are part of a “collage”-like universe, connected with each other in a non-linear way. Any attempt to re-connect them is a creative act by itself. From this point and on, art is working as a redefinition of all these elements, which through transformation and addition to some different context each time, works as my current impression of all these materials and forms.
I am also fascinated and inspired by the way children create. Their natural tendency to the joy of creating is more dominant than the expectation of a perfect result. The world of the adults, on the other hand, makes the creative game less innocent, since the conscious choices are involved and the expressive means and tools are stronger and technically developed.
Most of my projects involve an extensive material research. I have been processing materials in various ways in order to reveal their hidden qualities, possibilities, forms and behavior. Wood, paper, wax and textile are among the basic materials I use. Their texture, smell, natural flexibility and lightness trigger my curiosity and enthusiasm to experiment with them from the very first stage. I am especially attracted by materials related to drawing, such as pencils, oil pastels, graphite and paper. Material experimentation often leads to complete, “finished” pieces, or to results that belong to a process database that can potentially be used in the future.
Iris Tsante 2010