Melanie Georgacopoulos

Petrol Jewel

UK, 2010

Pendant

Materials:

Clay, paint, 18ct gold chain and ring

Techniques:

Hand shaping of clay, sanding , painting

in black

Dimension in cm:

7.5 x 5 x 2

Artist Statement:

This project is about using a very common

material, clay, which has been associated

with such a variety of decorative and

utilitarian purposes, and also trying to

capture fluidity within a piece of jewelry. It

is a black clay object held by gold rings in a

shape of a pendant. It is a tactile object

which invites the viewer to think of it as a

drop of petrol in relation to golden ties and

chains.

What was your starting point or your

inspiration for doing this project?

This project started as a response to this

particular brief of this exhibition. I have

been living in Great Britain for the last 5

years and I am daily exposed (through the

radio, friends) to discussions about the

war, its importance, its necessity or not, as

well as the middle East and its economic

importance. This was the first time I was

given the opportunity to express my opinion

through jewelry and I was very happy to do

so.

Do you have a personal (or other)

connection to the exhibition’s theme?

No I do not have a personal connection to

the exhibition’s theme

What were the main reasons for choosing

the materials, shapes or technique in your

work?

wanted to work with a material that I felt

corresponded best to the exhibition’s

theme, rather than ‘adjusting’ one of my

previous pieces to ‘fit in’. I chose clay

because I consider it to be a very ‘honest’

material, its unpretentious, it symbolizes

the soil we walk on, the soil we plant food

on, the soil we extract petrol from, among

other things. I decided to shape it by hand

as I thought it was the only way for me to

achieve a natural result, hense the small

marks and imperfections, as well as make a

unique piece. The drop shape and black

colour is derivative of thoughts about water

and petrol, fluidity, sources of life (direct

and indirect) and all connections between

those two elements. The gold rings

symbolize the wealth as well as the ties that

have a grip (or not, since its fluid) on this

object.

What kind of feeling you wish the viewers

will get from your work?

Honesty.

If you could give your Jewelry to an

important figure in the Middle East who

will he/she be? and why?

I think I would prefer to give it to a person

begging on the street, who might sell the

gold to survive…