“I have made jewellery for many years. it is a way of making small objects that are like sculpture on the body.”
- Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor was one of the first artists approached by the Louisa Guinness to make jewels. He was excited to explore a new medium. His first work, Large Water Ring, was executed in two versions - white and yellow gold - for the gallery’s debut exhibition, ‘Past and Present: Jewellery by Contemporary Artists’, in 2003. The following year, Round and Tear rings were followed by Square, Rectangle and Crescent rings.
The scale was the most challenging aspect for Kapoor when it came to considering jewellery. He was sure of the effect he wanted to achieve but unsure of how to achieve it. An expert at thinking in three dimensions, and about the possibilities of polished metals Kapoor nonetheless went through a painstaking process involving several prototypes to produce the ‘right’ effect in small scale.
He was particularly concerned about the concave internal form; if the viewer did not appear upside down when looking into the void of a ring or pendant, the jewel had failed.
Since then, Kapoor has continued to build on the foundations of his earliest experiments. Like his sculpture, Kapoor’s jewellery (including rings, pendants and earrings) toys with our perception of space; using highly polished 22ct gold, white gold and coloured lacquer in various combinations, he tricks the eye. Voids appear as solid, as water encased in metal or as solid stones inlaid in the metal surface.
Anish Kapoor’s jewellery is exclusively available at Louisa Guinness Gallery.