From Walter to Valerie / Researchers
Liesbet Bussche, Pia Clauwaert and Hilde Van der Heyden are the researchers of St Lucas School of Arts Antwerp who are participating in 'From Walter to Valerie'. Click here for more information on their projects.
Pia Clauwaert
Biography
Pia Clauwaert (b. 1954, BE) graduated as a jewellery designer from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in XXXX and from HISK (Higher Institute for Fine Arts) in 1981, both located in Antwerp. Since 1990 she has taught at St Lucas School of Arts Antwerp. In 1992 she won the Antwerp Provincial Prize for Jewellery Design.
Selected exhibitions: ‘Ringvormen’ (Zwevegem, Belgium) / ‘Parures’ (Nîmes - Uzès - Cagnes sur Mer, France) / ‘Tribute to Angela’ (Berlin, Germany) / ‘A table for 2/Picnic for 2’ (Galerie Sofie Lachaert, Tielrode, Belgium) / ‘Het Juweel’ (The Garage, Mechelen, Belgium & Scharpoord, Knokke, Belgium) / ‘Dichter bij het sieraad: Flemish jewellery inspired by poetry’ (Alden Biesen, Belgium) / ‘Contemporary Belgian Jewellery’ (Colorado, USA - Tokyo, Japan - Ghent, Belgium) / ‘België-Nederland Juweelkunst 1945-2000’ (Ghent, Belgium) / 12th Silbertriennale (Hanau, Germany - Pforzheim, Germany - Antwerp, Belgium) / ‘Arte Flamenco Actual’ (Barcelona, Spain) / ‘Twee-enig’ (Galerie Sofie Lachaert, Antwerp) / ‘Blikvangers’ (Textielmuseum, Tilburg, The Netherlands - Villa Eksternest, Roeselare, Belgium) / ‘Het Edele Labeur’ (Museum voor Sierkunst, Ghent, Belgium) / ‘Schmuck aus Belgien: die Moderne’ (Hanau, Germany - Gmünd, Germany - Antwerp, Belgium).
Project: Venice
My research led me to search for the story behind the Venetian chain. Although no topographic explanation is known, the name is said to have emerged around 1960 in Italy where ‘Venetian chain’ was used as a product name.
And yet Venice inspired me. By painting the industrial chains of Walter Fischer by hand, I wanted to catch the city’s light and colours. When the paint wears off from being worn, a smooth and shiny silver chain will appear.
Pia Clauwaert (b. 1954, BE) graduated as a jewellery designer from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in XXXX and from HISK (Higher Institute for Fine Arts) in 1981, both located in Antwerp. Since 1990 she has taught at St Lucas School of Arts Antwerp. In 1992 she won the Antwerp Provincial Prize for Jewellery Design.
Selected exhibitions: ‘Ringvormen’ (Zwevegem, Belgium) / ‘Parures’ (Nîmes - Uzès - Cagnes sur Mer, France) / ‘Tribute to Angela’ (Berlin, Germany) / ‘A table for 2/Picnic for 2’ (Galerie Sofie Lachaert, Tielrode, Belgium) / ‘Het Juweel’ (The Garage, Mechelen, Belgium & Scharpoord, Knokke, Belgium) / ‘Dichter bij het sieraad: Flemish jewellery inspired by poetry’ (Alden Biesen, Belgium) / ‘Contemporary Belgian Jewellery’ (Colorado, USA - Tokyo, Japan - Ghent, Belgium) / ‘België-Nederland Juweelkunst 1945-2000’ (Ghent, Belgium) / 12th Silbertriennale (Hanau, Germany - Pforzheim, Germany - Antwerp, Belgium) / ‘Arte Flamenco Actual’ (Barcelona, Spain) / ‘Twee-enig’ (Galerie Sofie Lachaert, Antwerp) / ‘Blikvangers’ (Textielmuseum, Tilburg, The Netherlands - Villa Eksternest, Roeselare, Belgium) / ‘Het Edele Labeur’ (Museum voor Sierkunst, Ghent, Belgium) / ‘Schmuck aus Belgien: die Moderne’ (Hanau, Germany - Gmünd, Germany - Antwerp, Belgium).
Project: Venice
My research led me to search for the story behind the Venetian chain. Although no topographic explanation is known, the name is said to have emerged around 1960 in Italy where ‘Venetian chain’ was used as a product name.
And yet Venice inspired me. By painting the industrial chains of Walter Fischer by hand, I wanted to catch the city’s light and colours. When the paint wears off from being worn, a smooth and shiny silver chain will appear.
Hilde Van der Heyden
Biography
Hilde Van der Heyden (b. 1960, BE) is an artist and jewellery designer who lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1982 and from HISK (Higher Institute for Fine Arts) in 1985, both located in Antwerp.
Since 1993 she has been affiliated with the Jewellery Design department of St Lucas School of Arts Antwerp as an artist, professor and appointed researcher.
Her work is included in the collection of various Belgian museums and has been exhibited regularly since 1982.
Project: Phantom Brillant, Knots & Twist
What happens when two cities, Antwerp and Idar-Oberstein, meet?
As a designer I have explored how I can connect these two places via the chain. The trade in precious stones has played a decisive role in the development of both cities, and continues to do so today. This fact led me to focus on the cutting of the diamond. I converted a tight line drawing of this classic cutting into a chain which, once worn, vanishes once more on the body, close to the skin.
Perfect and imperfect cuttings, inclusions and impurities in precious stones brought me to the idea of manipulating the chain machine. This resulted in mistakes in the manufacturing process: a manufacturing mistake turns the mechanically produced chain into a not-to-be-disentangled knot or in a chain with links that have been partly melted together.
This formed the start of a new research, whereby large and small mistakes that emerged during the making are mobilized in a plastic process. The main question here was what meaning these influences and tensions would acquire within the theme of the chain line. Do these manipulations generate communication between the wearer and spectator, or are they merely conscious choices made by the designer?
Hilde Van der Heyden (b. 1960, BE) is an artist and jewellery designer who lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1982 and from HISK (Higher Institute for Fine Arts) in 1985, both located in Antwerp.
Since 1993 she has been affiliated with the Jewellery Design department of St Lucas School of Arts Antwerp as an artist, professor and appointed researcher.
Her work is included in the collection of various Belgian museums and has been exhibited regularly since 1982.
Project: Phantom Brillant, Knots & Twist
What happens when two cities, Antwerp and Idar-Oberstein, meet?
As a designer I have explored how I can connect these two places via the chain. The trade in precious stones has played a decisive role in the development of both cities, and continues to do so today. This fact led me to focus on the cutting of the diamond. I converted a tight line drawing of this classic cutting into a chain which, once worn, vanishes once more on the body, close to the skin.
Perfect and imperfect cuttings, inclusions and impurities in precious stones brought me to the idea of manipulating the chain machine. This resulted in mistakes in the manufacturing process: a manufacturing mistake turns the mechanically produced chain into a not-to-be-disentangled knot or in a chain with links that have been partly melted together.
This formed the start of a new research, whereby large and small mistakes that emerged during the making are mobilized in a plastic process. The main question here was what meaning these influences and tensions would acquire within the theme of the chain line. Do these manipulations generate communication between the wearer and spectator, or are they merely conscious choices made by the designer?
