Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
Birmingham City University
The Red Dot
The 40 different brooches in ‘The Red Dot’ collection have been exhibited in art jewellery venues and were displayed in a specially designed interactive showcase that allowed visitors to try selected pieces for themselves without reference to an assistant.
The brooches have been made using a flocking process as was the display case, in reality transformed into a tall plinth to which each item was attached magnetically. Thus, inverting the more usual arrangement, the jewellery was on the outside rather than inside and could be easily handled. When removed from their specific locations each piece revealed a red dot - the classic signification of ‘sold’.
The brooch production method was arrived at through extensive three-dimensional design experimentation and development addressing issues of attachment method, colour and texture to achieve a visually exciting and coherent outcome.
The display method was product of an invitation to 12 jewellery designers to participate in an exhibition by Bank Street Arts, Sheffield, curated by John Clarke and called ‘Twelve Glass Cabinets’. In her determination to challenge the conventional concept of jewellery displayed in the glazed box, Robertson replaced the see-though panels of her cabinet with flocked boards echoing the texture of her brooches, whilst retaining the proportions and fitments of the flat-packed IKEA unit allocated to each exhibitor.
http://bankstreetarts.com/exhibitions/twelve-glass-cabinets/
Following this ‘The Red Dot‘ was one of 100 collections selected from 600 applications from 28 countries for the exhibition 'The European Prize for Applied Arts' hosted by the Worlds Craft Council and juried by: Rosy Greenlees, Director, Crafts Council, London; Denise Biernaux, Director, Gallery Les Drapiers, Liège; Enzo Biffi Gentili, Director, Museum of Contemporary Applied Arts, Turin; Frédéric Bodet, Curator, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris; Wolfgang Lösche, Exhibitions Director, Handwerkskammer, Munich; David Marchal, Director, Grand Hornu Images, Mons.
