Cappella Far
Reflections I-M
The ‘Reflections’ are a series of unique but interrelated monochrome glass bead hand embroidery and burnt and polished metal shapes. These artefacts stem directly from Marijke De Cock’s drawings, created by hand in an automatic, intuitive process, merely referring to themselves. Or perhaps to the spirit of the moment they emerged from. After which, in close collaboration with a dedicated team of craftsmen in India, these drawings are transformed into tangible objects, adorned with a wealth of glass beads, and executed in captivating colours.
Reflective fragments, reminiscent of random cut-outs, support jewel-like creations. The slightly brutal edges of the stainless steel or copper are burnt, underlining an immediacy and decisiveness that further emphasises the subtle glass beads and delicate craftsmanship. Their reflective quality, however, deliberately avoids the function of a mirror, but rather enhances the interplay with light, confirming even more the relationship with the space in which the work is located. The end result is typically the outcome of a single drawing. Or in some cases, it is the consequence of the thoughtful composition of several.
Marijke De Cock lives and works in Antwerp, where she previously studied Fashion at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. She has been working for years as a designer within the team of Dries Van Noten, where she specialises, among other things, in the conception and creation of exceptional ornaments and jewellery. An engagement that in a sense inspired her personal practice, by adopting an established craft that is usually related to the garment it is meant to serve, yet which she allows to function autonomously and in full. It is an ancient and traditional, time-consuming technique – involving working with glass beads and passed from generation to generation – which she sensibly juxtaposes with her fascination for the hand that, as it were, moves by itself, seems to make its own decisions, and transcends thought. It all together manifests itself in distinctive series of abstracted, intuitive wall sculptures which, adorned with beads, above all celebrate the desire to create, using a material that goes back thousands of years, motivating us from childhood onwards to invent ornaments with it, to embellish a person or a place.