'Have nothing on your body that you don’t know to be useful or believe to be beautiful or love,’ reads an inscription daubed on the walls of Louisa Guinness’ Mayfair gallery. It’s by Ron Arad, appropriated from a quote by William Morris where ‘on your body’ replaces ‘in your house’ and it refers to the jewellery Arad and Guinness have put on show together.
‘Rocks’ is a collection of necklaces, earrings and bracelets that look like they’re made from shards of hefty glass. In fact they’re feather-light hunks of silicone, embedded with shreds of silk scarves, carefully cut up by Arad and arranged in a specific order. ‘Ron has been experimenting with silicone for many years, and the challenge with Rocks was to ensure it doesn’t turn yellow with age,’ explains Guinness.
The pair first met in 2002 when Guinness ran a furniture showroom in Sloane Avenue showing design art from the likes of Arad, Donald Judd and Rolf Sachs. Preferring ‘small, easy to transport objects’, she shifted focus to artist-made jewellery and has commissioned the likes of Gavin Turk and Grayson Perry, Anish Kapoor and Claude Lalanne to create niche pieces.
Nor is 'Rocks' Arad’s first foray into jewellery design. In 2003, he created a range of spiral earrings entitled 'Hot Ingo', and inspired by the lighting of his great pal Ingo Maurer. The collection – which features black, white and red spirals that expand and contract along silver and gold stems – has been reissued using a 3D printer and 18 carat gold. Then there’s 'Naja', a series of magnifying glass pendants made of silver and guilded silver, which coil around smoky and scratchy quartz circles, or ‘lenses’.
‘To me Ron is one of the most versatile designers there is,’ says Guinness. ‘His range is huge; he can create everything from baths to spectacles to delicate jewellery.’ He’s also one of 15 artists with whom Guinness is collaborating this year, and in June the gallery undergoes its biggest transformation yet, with a show of jewellery, miniatures, clocks and bronzes by Claude Lalanne.
‘Rocks’ is a collection of necklaces, earrings and bracelets that look like they’re made from shards of hefty glass
In fact, they are lightweight hunks of silicone, embedded with shreds of silk scarves
Previous Ron Arad jewellery collections include 'Naja', a series of magnifying glass pendants made of silver and guilded silver, which coil around smoky and scratchy quartz circles, or ‘lenses’. Pictured: Free-hand Naja Amethyst
Guinness says of Arad's work: ‘To me Ron is one of the most versatile designers there is. His range is huge; he can create everything from baths to spectacles to delicate jewellery’
INFORMATION
Ron Arad Rocks! runs from 24 February until 8 April 2016, at Louisa Guinness’ London Mayfair Gallery. For more information, visit the website
Photography courtesy the artist and Louisa Guiness Gallery
ADDRESS
45 Conduit Street
Mayfair, London
![Installation views of It’s not my job, it’s your job / Ce n’est pas mon travail, c’est votre travail at [mac] mus e d’art contemporain de Marseille, 2023](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/CC3pZWbdpNejcfiv4jeXBB-1280-80.jpg.webp)
-
A major Frida Kahlo exhibition is coming to the Tate Modern next yearTate’s 2026 programme includes 'Frida: The Making of an Icon', which will trace the professional and personal life of countercultural figurehead Frida Kahlo
-
A portrait of the artist: Sotheby’s puts Grayson Perry in the spotlightFor more than a decade, photographer Richard Ansett has made Grayson Perry his muse. Now Sotheby’s is staging a selling exhibition of their work
-
From counter-culture to Northern Soul, these photos chart an intimate history of working-class Britain‘After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 – 2024’ is at Edinburgh gallery Stills
-
Celia Paul's colony of ghostly apparitions haunts Victoria MiroEerie and elegiac new London exhibition ‘Celia Paul: Colony of Ghosts’ is on show at Victoria Miro until 17 April
-
Teresa Pągowska's dreamy interpretations of the female form are in London for the first time‘Shadow Self’ in Thaddaeus Ropac’s 18th-century townhouse gallery in London, presents the first UK solo exhibition of Pągowska’s work
-
Sylvie Fleury's work in dialogue with Matisse makes for a provocative exploration of the female form'Drawing on Matisse, An Exhibition by Sylvie Fleury’ is on show until 2 May at Luxembourg + Co
-
What to see at BFI Flare film festival, 'a rich tapestry of queer experience'As one of the only film festivals to explicitly profile LGBTQI+ cinema, BFI Flare Film Festival remains a unique and beloved event. Here's what to see as it makes its return to London from 19 - 30 March
-
The enduring appeal of Transport for London’s seat designsFrom artist Rita Keegan’s new collage to fashion designer Adam Jones’ Overground suit, TfL moquettes continue to enjoy a cult status
