Ana Morais Caldas

In the name of Love

Portugal, 2010

Brooch

Materials:

Silver, Labradorite, still wire, computer

electronic circuits

Techniques

Soldering, engraving and finishing

Dimension in cm:

6.5 x 13 x 0.6

Artist Statement:

Amidst the uncountable conflicts that filled

with blood the world in the last century –

and keep on filling -, the one where Israelis

and Palestinians face each other is one of

the longer and, no doubt, the one that

echoes louder in the world, at least in the

world that heirs the Biblical tradition

through Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

For us, simple citizens, even with more

reason if we aren’t nor Israelis nor

Palestinians, we feel totally impotent facing

such conflict. There is something we can

do, maybe the only thing. It is to offer our

creativity, as artists, our reflection, and

strengthen the universal values, not for

those who want to keep injustice and wars

eternal, but for those that try to put an end,

at least in the way that it is still possible.

Believing in the same God, with a diversity

in culture, a vast heritage, so many

languages and symbolism, so many ways

and arts, it is hard to believe that the world

can have such a growing impetus of

violence and aggression. Does God exist?

I chose the good side to create my idea of

Humanity and my participation as a

jeweller is to make out of the cultural

diversity the Babel Tower.

What was your starting point or your

inspiration for doing this project?

An initial point is the conflict between

Israel and Palestine: in the same territory

esteemed by the three monotheist religions

there is violence and lack of the Sacred, so

many times forgotten and profaned in the

name of God. Besides this serious focus,

Middle East has other conflicts, that don’t

show any importance towards a spiritual,

poetic and artistic legacy of former

civilizations, and towards the importance

of all this to Humanity as a whole.

If you have a personal or other connection

to the exhibition theme? please share it

with us.

All my work as a jeweller has been inspired

in ancient cultures, in their aesthetics and

metaphoric shapes, using symbols and

meanings that moved between civilizations.

I particularly refer the golden age of al-

Andalus, when the three religions lived

together in a relative peace, and where arts

flourished. Contemporary world is in

conflict and in an urgent need of peace and

understanding, appreciating and caring for

a whole heritage, whether material or

immaterial. My artistic development

recreates elements of the arts of al-Andalus;

at the same time I get inspired by the poetry

of such epoch, and by the symbols and

aesthetics of ancient Mediterranean. I

appeal for Peace, Love and Beauty, leaving

messages of Universality as well.

What were the main reasons for choosing

the materials, shapes or technique in your

work?

The octagon, inspired in the Dome of the

Rock plan, is a metaphor of a multi-culture,

and a sacralisation of a territory by the

three religions of the Book. The engraving

on silver of the poem “my heart is open to

all the forms”, by Ibn al-Arabi – a mystic

Sufi poet born in al-Andalus in the 12th

century, and with his tomb in Damascus –

is an evocation of the embracing quality of

Love, which does not deny paths; it is like a

precious stone, and, therefore, the setting

stone remembers this. By one side, one

octagon represents the ever-flowing current

that encompasses societies with knowledge

and open-mind; on the other side, in the

other octagon, the electronic circuits are

like the diverse ways of the human being,

ways that are still operative in a world full

of technology. At the same time, technology

works as a metaphor of links of movement,

of exchanges, whether of knowledge,

journeys or shifts in geography. Without

the values of the ever-flowing Religion of

Love – which I represent by the small silver

wheel with arabesques -, all technological

development is soulless. This piece is a

message of a symbiosis between two

worlds, not back-to-back, but converging

for a common goal of Knowledge and a

multiplicity of paths.

What kind of feeling you wish the viewers

will get from your work?

In a society without diversity there is no

friction, but there is no creativity as well. In

this contemporary world it is urgent to

reflect on how to live together and share

values and believes, freedom, respect and

love, or else technology will be on the rise

along with profit, and the destruction,

games of power and domain over the other

will win.

If you could give your Jewelry to an

important figure in the Middle East who

will he/she be? and why?

Special people that may be offered this piece

would be all those that have hope and that

contribute for a peaceful, artistic, diverse,

cultured and lovely world.

Personal information:

personal website:

www.anamoraiscaldas.com

If I wasn’t an artist what profession would I

choose?

Naturopath, art historian, archeologist,

anthropologist

My dream is:

to keep on creating and living in a world of

Peace.