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Jacobsfineart.com > Nieuws > Press release - Mari Keto
Press release - Mari Keto
Posted on 28-04-2008
What? Expo Mari Keto, winner of The Ivy Art Icon Competition
Where? Galerie Frans Jacobs - Judith Bouwknegt, Paris
When? 11/06/2008 (- 01/07/2008)
Mari Keto / Handcrafting the Uncanny /
Contemporary art set in gold
A bear trap handbag in glittering gold, a sparkling Paris Hiton made of thousands of brooches and a mirror cabinet with pills in precious metals. These are just some of the things that make up the spectacular body of works of Finnish/Danish artist Mari Keto.
Mari Keto refer to her own works as ‘objects’. Having the self contained uselessness of the art work and the perfectly executed craftsmanship of jewelery art, it is no wonder that Ketos works have always been hard to place.
Originally from a small town in Jaala, Finland Mari Keto graduated as an art blacksmith in 2003 from Pirkanmaa art and handcraft school, and after moving to Denmark she achieved a masters degree in jewellery art in 2008. Keto describes always being somewhat of an oddball, her works often being hard to fit into a classical understanding of jewelry art, not always meeting smiles form her teachers.
A key aspect of Ketos art is a highly conceptual use of the language and the classical materials of jewellery art. The connotations and symbolism that the materials have come to carry are used in very decisive ways to construct the statements of the art works.
In her terrific and horrific piece Trapped in Luxury from 2008, a handbag is subject of a grim twist: A monstrous mutation has turned the handbag into ferocious bear trap with big jagged gold plated teeth. The flawless craft of the golden trap, with its leather handles imbues the work with power and authority making the piece seem timeless and pregnant with meaning.
The piece calls up references of to the Surrealist movement and the idea of the uncanny. This strange object both beautiful and alluring, but at the same time alien and repulsive. In itself a classical Surrealist strategy: “the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table” as Lautréamont is to have said. Only there is no element of chance involved in Ketos Trapped in Luxury. On the contrary the symbolic meanings produced by the meeting of the bear trap and the handbag are highly constructed: When looking closer one notices the familiar diamond shaped tassels and the classic Louis Vuitton logos etched into the glittering gold.
In the encounter is thus constructs a bone-crushing critique of consumer society: The trap of luxury that we willingly walk into. Skinning ourselves to buy into the trap of luxury consumerism, parading the the teethmarks of which up and down the streets as a trophy on our arm.
Ketos works, like Trapped in Luxury, has an affinity to fin-de-siècle symbolism but with a conceptual twist and mixed with influences from pop culture and consumer society.
At once classic in vocabulary and contemporary in statement, Keto returns to the art work as a object of wonder. The sheer technical superiority in the craft bringing power and authority to the work. Contemporary art set in gold.
www.mariketo.com
www.theivy.dk
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