Lucy Sarneel

“Jewels are like energy carriers. When I am working I put all my energy into the thing, but the thing must become itself and get a soul, start talking back to you. It is like the process of life; it is all about building up and letting go.”

Lucy Sarneel will talk about several sources that have inspired her throughout her practice as a jewellery artist. Even if her use of zinc is often associated with the traditional Dutch character of functional objects and architectural elements, Sarneel does not follow traditional forms. During her travels to Australia and Central America, she became increasingly inspired by indigenous aesthetics of non-western cultures.Objects from these cultures play an important role in her art; her latest work, in particular, is concerned with the idea of a jewel as power-object and patron, with the aim of capturing a kind of “modern primitivism” as a counterpart to the high-tech, efficient, mass-oriented, digitalised world we live in.