CAMEO IS AN ONGOING SERIES FEATURING CANADIAN JEWELLERY ARTISTS. HERE, THEY SHARE THEIR LATEST THOUGHTS AND INSIGHTS, AND GIVE US A PEEK INTO THEIR PRACTICE.
CAMEO:
KATIA MARTEL
Senneterre, Québec
katiamartel.com
Describe your current work/practice in one sentence.
Initiated with the Women’s series in 2014, I am now continuing my work related to the body by
making a connection between the jewel and diseases. The project is called Foreign Bodies and will be presented in February 2019.
What are three things/ideas that inspire you?
The Boreal territory: its wild side, its exploitation and its occupation by the modern human.
The effects of passing time, such as degradation, accumulation, everydayness, expansion.
The repetitive gestures and the development of forms by compression, assembly or accumulation.
What other things do you do besides your jewellery practice?
I define myself first as a contemporary jewellery artist but also have a practice in performative art, sculpture and installation. These other mediums often come to match my projects in jewellery. I divide my time between creation, research, plants and mushroom picking. I also make excursions to industrial sites, places impacted by current or past human occupation, landfills, tailings and abandoned mining sites.
My favorite piece is the concrete ring. I like it for its shape, its composition, and the materials with which I made it. I like to push the limits of portability in jewellery and this work represents it well. A jewel must be wearable around the neck or slip on the finger, but it is not written that it must be for a long time.
This piece was part of a video mapping installation I did for the Presence Absence project, an exhibition combining jewellery and video projections which focused on the theme of abandoned towns and villages. Through my romantic vision, the concrete ring evokes the beauty and the poetry expressed through the foundation of a deconstructed house or an abandoned factory.
What is a favourite piece that you’ve made and why?
Bague béton/Concrete ring (2015)
Béton, fer/Concrete, iron
Photo: Anthony Mclean
Piece de la Série Femmes / Woman series (2016)
Gaines et dessous recyclés, polyester, argent, cuivre, acier inoxydable/ Recycled pantyhose and undergarments, polyester, silver, copper, stainless steel
Photo: Anthony Mclean
Less gold more art.
What word pops into your mind when you think of Canadian art jewellery?
I’m getting ready for a three-month creative residency called the Atelier 2.0 project. It’s an artist residency revisited, where the geographical isolation of my own workshop unites with the opening of the world caused by the integration of digital values and technologies; openness, co-construction, innovation, daring and sharing are the watchwords of this contemporary jewellery creation laboratory. I will broadcast live the progress of my residency via social media and my YouTube channel. I invite you to subscribe to my various web platforms to keep in touch.
What is coming up next for you?
Published: 2018/12/18
