My recent work explores how Obsessive Compulsive Disorder relates to myself, the culture at large, and especially its relationship to the identity and practices of the goldsmith. I make visible the never-ending repetitive behavior and attention to infinitesimal details, both of which the goldsmith and the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder sufferer exhibit, and to their shared attention of the smallest details that the average person would overlook. The habits of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and the practice of the goldsmith are strikingly similar: Both engage in repeated, ritualized activity ad infinitum, both are obsessed with notions of control and with minute details. The only difference is that the former is characterized as a disorder while the latter is seen as a certain temperament beneficial to the goldsmith. I use the traditional jewelry forms, techniques, materials, and visual vocabulary of the goldsmith in such profusion that their original functions are lost and they become an exercise in mania. Detail is an important factor. Obsessives and goldsmiths attach great importance to minutiae that the "normal" person would overlook. My attempt is to make the importance of these seemingly arbitrary details visible to the viewer. Through a strategy of repetition and exaggeration, this work manifests the characteristics of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in Materials form. My intention is to positively reframe perceptions ofOCD characteristics by recognizing its inevitability in the skills of the goldsmith, contemporary culture, and in artistic practice.
-Alexandra Hopp
As a maker, I have become increasingly aware of the relationship between my hands and the jewelry I make. There is a shadowed space between maker and made, often meant to be invisible to both the trained and untrained eye. This space has always been uncomfortable for me, as a jeweler, as accuracy does not come naturally. However, it is from within this boundary that I have begun to find something honest. Paying careful attention to my material, sterling silver, I manipulate it in order to break, then repair and reconstruct, making something whole that had been turned into fragments. It is within this evidence, the evidence of my own hand, that my boundaries as a maker, wearer, and thinker become clear and find a voice within the jewelry I make.
-LYDIA MARTIN
