From Walter to Valerie / Silke Fleischer
Silke Fleischer is one of the participants in 'From Walter to Valerie'. Click here for more information on her project Still Point, Free Movement & Restriction.
Photo by Marc Tops
Photo by Marc Tops
Biography
Silke Fleischer (b. 1975, BE) studied Ceramic Design at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, AP University College Antwerp (1995-1999) and completed the Jewellery Design course at St Lucas, Karel de Grote University College of Art & Design Antwerp where in 2002 she received her second master’s degre. Between 2005 and 2011 she invited designers and artists to set up events at her space for contemporary jewellery in Antwerp called Silke & The Gallery. Fleischer has been attached as a visiting tutor to the MAD-Faculty PXL University College in Hasselt and has taught since 2005 at the Stedelijke Academie in Sint Niklaas and Berchem (Antwerp). She is currently active as a curator for Jewellery Sessions while further developing her jewellery research and making commissioned work.
Project: Hold (Still Point, Free Movement and Restriction)
December 4th. 12:52 pm 2017
A chain as we know it, as a necklace, goes around the neck, and is fastened with a little lock. The chain follows the form of the neck over the shoulder down towards the body and moves with it. The piece takes on its form through the body and this form changes with the body’s movement. It is one of the most flexible pieces of jewellery because of its repetitive, open character. It hangs down, while dangling, and is constantly transforming. On the other hand, a chain is also known as a tool for locking and protecting (areas) or for carrying weights. This double functionality is what interests me. It may emphasize a body’s form and movement but also refers to its limitation. By using chains and robes (some combined with steel wire) as my study material, I examine the moment through movement and at the same time the restrictions these mediums offer. I think of the chains less as necklace and more as sculpture, body, space, landscape, and I think of experience as a process of moving rather than just of wearing. Motion implies a change in the position of the chain over time. If the position of a body does not change with respect to a given frame of reference, the chain, the body is said to be at rest, motionless, immobile, stationary, or to have a constant position. Can we observe this change if it does not take time, and how can people experience it to be happening? Exploring this, I consider the making as the moment. Defining change as an event through its objectification. Every serial piece I make seems to be a message from my future self, ever so convenient. While everything is changing and is constantly in motion, so are we. The Hold series shows a small fragment in time, a very small fragment really. It can be witnessed instead of observed. I suggest that we experience aspects of them as we cannot experience them to be happening. Motion applies to objects, bodies and particles of matter, to radiation, radiation fields and radiation particles, and to space, its curvature and space-time. One can also speak of the motion of shapes and boundaries. So the term motion in general signifies a continuous change in the configuration of a physical system. For example, one can talk about the motion of a wave or about the motion of a quantum particle, where the configuration consists of probabilities of occupying specific positions.
‘At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.’
From ‘Four Quartets 1: Burnt Norton’ by T.S. Eliot
A chain as we know it, as a necklace, goes around the neck, and is fastened with a little lock. The chain follows the form of the neck over the shoulder down towards the body and moves with it. The piece takes on its form through the body and this form changes with the body’s movement. It is one of the most flexible pieces of jewellery because of its repetitive, open character. It hangs down, while dangling, and is constantly transforming. On the other hand, a chain is also known as a tool for locking and protecting (areas) or for carrying weights. This double functionality is what interests me. It may emphasize a body’s form and movement but also refers to its limitation. By using chains and robes (some combined with steel wire) as my study material, I examine the moment through movement and at the same time the restrictions these mediums offer. I think of the chains less as necklace and more as sculpture, body, space, landscape, and I think of experience as a process of moving rather than just of wearing. Motion implies a change in the position of the chain over time. If the position of a body does not change with respect to a given frame of reference, the chain, the body is said to be at rest, motionless, immobile, stationary, or to have a constant position. Can we observe this change if it does not take time, and how can people experience it to be happening? Exploring this, I consider the making as the moment. Defining change as an event through its objectification. Every serial piece I make seems to be a message from my future self, ever so convenient. While everything is changing and is constantly in motion, so are we. The Hold series shows a small fragment in time, a very small fragment really. It can be witnessed instead of observed. I suggest that we experience aspects of them as we cannot experience them to be happening. Motion applies to objects, bodies and particles of matter, to radiation, radiation fields and radiation particles, and to space, its curvature and space-time. One can also speak of the motion of shapes and boundaries. So the term motion in general signifies a continuous change in the configuration of a physical system. For example, one can talk about the motion of a wave or about the motion of a quantum particle, where the configuration consists of probabilities of occupying specific positions.
‘At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.’
From ‘Four Quartets 1: Burnt Norton’ by T.S. Eliot
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