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She say's : "By travelling you meet the world, the imagination and your work". She sometimes goes for months at a time in search of experience, which later may have an influence on her work. That work is often - but not always - making of jewellery. Her wooden hand and shoulder ornaments were selected for Ornamenta 1, the international event that was a meeting -place for contemporary developments in the artists jewellery world, 1989. For Rian de Jong, who graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam, in 1985, it was a breakthrough. Her work stood out in the field of modern jewellery in the Netherlands because of her use of wood, a material whose characteristics she did not overwhelm but channelled and intensified. Rian de Jong processes many different materials into forms which may be carried in different ways on various parts of the body. She seeks the nature and meaning of both form and material. There is a tension between the surface and the form through juxtaposition of different materials. There is always a quest, the going, as in the journey. Her work is showed in galleries and collected by many museums, all over the world. |
Rian de Jong is that most unusual of jewellers - the travelling artist, sailing round the world while still making, still creating. Having swapped her permanent bench in a well-appointed studio in one of the most desirable new parts of Amsterdam to go on an extended voyage, she has nevertheless continued to create jewellery on board and on the move. That in itself must have greatly influenced how she went about her work, given the constraints of space and movement. Yet, her fascination with materials is still very evident. These have been sourced in new locations, perhaps in shops and stores she might previously never have expected to encounter. For her they have to be different and not readily available, so travelling the world is a great way of sourcing interesting and intriguing new stuff. Travelling is not new to her; she has previously undertaken international residencies which have taken her away from home for periods of time but this high seas voyaging is an altogether more serious undertaking, requiring detailed advance planning and extensive seafaring experience and expertise. She thinks of the constraints of a tiny constantly moving studio not so much a handicap as an open window to the biggest studio she could imagine, as this new maritime world exposes itself to her every day. |