The Lore of Sinners,
Cunts and Whores
Most signs of evil found in Western and non-Western societies today have one thing in common: they are based on ancient symbols of female mythological figures or archetypes*, as they are called in analytical psychology. Originally, they were used to celebrate the miracle of life, which was considered sacred.
However, over the course of some five thousand years of patriarchal culture, much that represented the female body, the female sex and reproductive organs, menstrual blood and childbirth was devalued and even banned. In the myths and fairy tales of this world, there are numerous female figures that were devalued under patriarchy.
Some examples are the serpent and the apple, which were converted from pagan symbols of female wisdom and fertility to symbols of evil in the Bible. The word sin originally meant "being" and "truth". The English word cunt is associated with cunning and craftiness, and its root meanings are „clever, powerful, create" and "gut feeling".
For the ornaments, I combine blown-out, empty eggs in cow intestines and attach them in rows on iron wire or nettle strings. These symbols of male and female archetypes intertwine in ways that raise questions about power, fragility, aggression, beauty, fertility and ritual function.
With this new series, I shed light on the immense abjection that the female body and its symbols have experienced for millennia. I explore mythological characters such as Medusa, Circe or Lilith and their symbols and create forms to celebrate them.
Adorning the body with anything that is considered too physical, too feminine, even witchy and therefore disgusting, is a provocation to patriarchal society. With these necklaces, however, my main focus is on the beauty and power of the sinner, the cunt and the whore.
*In analytical psychology, archetypes denote collective, unconscious structures of human action. In philosophy, they denote ideas and metaphysical archetypes.


The Lore of The Cunt, necklace, 2023, Chicken Eggs, Cow Intestines, Iron Wire, Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim

The Lore of the Bixn, necklace, 2024, Cans, Cow Intestines, Stinging Nettles

The Lore of the Norns, necklace, 2024, Wood, Cow Intestines, Stinging Nettles

The Lore of Circe, necklace, 2024, Chicken Eggs, Cow Intestines, Stinging Nettles

The Lore of Lilith, necklace, 2024, Forged Iron Nail, Cow Intestines, Iron Wire, Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim

The Lore of Hysteria, necklace, 2024, Wood, Cow Intestines, Iron Wire

The Lore of the Weird, necklace, 2024, Chicken Eggs, Quail Eggs, Cow Intestines, Iron Wire

The Lore of Medusa, 8 necklaces, 2024, Beeswax, Cow Intestines, Stinging Nettles

The Lore of Medusa, 8 necklaces, 2024, Beeswax, Cow Intestines, Stinging Nettles

The Lore of Medusa, 8 necklaces, 2024, Beeswax, Cow Intestines, Stinging Nettles
ECOTECHNOMAGIC
I was searching for a material that exists outside of our financial system and still provides something to people. When I came upon the stinging nettle, I was amazed at how much it offers for free: food, medicine, clothing, garden fertiliser, dye, cosmetics and incense. The nettle is an ancient plant, and its connection to humans is mentioned already in the bible.
To harvest the plants and twine the fibres, I don’t need any other tools than a knife, gloves, water, my hands and a lot of time. I then break, water, dry and peel the plant to extract the fibres, and I continue to water, card and spin the threads. This technique of crafting yarn from regional plants is thousands of years old and known in many cultures. Working with this ancient method and material today, I recreate an ancestral connection to the earth.
With Ecotechnomagic, I address our environmental issues: I suggest that a possible solution is much closer and easier available than we think, just as the nettle grows readily outside our doors. We need a shift in perspective to detect the good things already existing, like plastic degrading fungi. Environmental problems are being talked about since decades, and we have become numb towards this topic all the while it becomes more pressing. One attribute of jewellery is that it touches the wearer and is carried on the body through the day. I chose to make necklaces with stinging nettles, because I want the wearer to literally allow herself to be touched by the serious topic and to carry it with her. Even though the nettle in its dried form doesn’t sting the wearer anymore, its smell, feel and shape take up quite a presence on the wearer’s body.
body x necklace x intention = base unit
Jewellery does not exist in a bubble but it acts and is being acted upon in a complex network. In order to make these elements more explicit, I research connections between jewellery and its surrounding, for example the body, and its broader actants, for example societal norms. I am very interested in the body as the place and concept that jewellery relates to and theoretical knowledge on how and why people engage with objects, specifically jewellery.
For the series Memories of Healing, I researched tattooing and scarification traditions that humans created for protection on physical and magical levels. Tattoos, scarifications and brandings create pain in a controlled and ritualised setting without altering body functions. The transformation my necklaces undergo is aggressive, yet resolved to a point that exposes a beauty inherent to the process and to the outcome. This beauty is important to me as it makes the rigorous process more accessible. It is here that one can be reminded of the possibility of healing and growing after a painful experience.
Base Unit takes the transforming powers of jewellery as its starting point. Together with a reading group, I study Deleuze and Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus. The philosophers’ understanding of jewellery being a weapon, not necessarily in the literal sense but as an element that disrupts power structures, has influenced my work strongly. The necklaces become protective shields. They are not longer only a memory of an experienced healing in the past but they project into the future. Together with a human body and an intention, a necklace becomes a base unit: a forceful, beautiful Deleuzian warrior who troubles power structures and creates love.
Disclaimer
Quotes appear in italic, my own thoughts in regular font. The quotes are academically incorrect but sufficient to look them up.
ATP=Deleuze, Gilles and Guattari, Felix. 2013. A Thousand Plateaus Capitalism and Schizophrenia. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
Auszeichnungen
& Würdigungen
-
Es beginnt alles mit einer Idee. Vielleicht willst du ein Unternehmen gründen. Vielleicht möchtest du ein Hobby in etwas Größeres verwandeln.
-
Es beginnt alles mit einer Idee. Vielleicht willst du ein Unternehmen gründen. Vielleicht möchtest du ein Hobby in etwas Größeres verwandeln.
-
Es beginnt alles mit einer Idee. Vielleicht willst du ein Unternehmen gründen. Vielleicht möchtest du ein Hobby in etwas Größeres verwandeln.
-
Produktbeschreibung