happy family Mrs, 1999

set of three fold-to-fit rings sterling silver, offset-printed card box, paper.

A mild and temporary cure for the compulsively possessive: this 'happy product' should make you feel better, whilst having none of the drawbacks of actually meeting with the medical institution. It is especially recommended if you believe that health and beauty are the same thing; this purchase, in fact, should represent a marginal fraction of your monthly 'splash-out' on skin creams and slimming products - think of it as an aesthetic band-aid.

bout de doigt, 1999

nail accessory 18K yellow gold.

We mean to praise, and give flesh to, the painted nail! Our guess is that city dwellers will like it (they have fragile fingers), and pianists too: their hands are the objects of our affection.

happy family NHS, 2002

set of two adhesive rings, rubber, gauze, ink, screenprinted card, plastic sleeve.

Let us imagine that the NHS, just before its death rattle, adopts a liberal charter, simplified procedures, and a fresh, fashion-friendly attitude to dressings: while saving up to put your fatty deposits in the hands of overpaid, sublime surgeons, why not accessorise your minor cuts back to health! (I know you want to.)

berth, 2005

ring 18K yellow gold

support your local jeweller, 2006

set of two badges (edition of 150) aluminium, steel, acetate.

getting old sucks. 2005-06

two brooches, oxidised sterling silver, stainless steel pin.

Brooches for mammal in the p.m., worn to signal some things other than protracted youth: sag, feed, and pride. (The pair).

cheap thrills, 2006

set of two 'instant' wedding rings, 24K (fine) gold, offset-printed card sleeve.

A wedding ring each. In a wallet-thin holster, Concealed about you at all times, ready to be drawn out at the right moment. Out of it, you will produce two slivers of gold, And make rings out of them. That's all, folks (in a manner of speech).

thinking of you (Rita), 2006

brooch, fine silver, polyurethane paint, stainless steel pin.

"Thinking of you (portraits)" is a series of brooches that reproduces the ear of the user, or that of the user's partner / friend/child etc.: each brooch is designed to order, and strives to render, much as a portrait painting would, the specific features of the sitter's ear. It finds its inspiration in the Victorian hairwork popular towards the end of the 19th century: mourning and sentimental jewellery, usually presented in the form of lockets, featuring a painted portrait on its visible side, and a braided hairlock on the flipside, or inside the medallion. It is poised, as the locket was, between remains and representation. Each brooch is delivered in a box, pinned to a folded newspaper page featuring a personal ad describing the sitter.

thinking of you (Andrea), 2006

brooch, fine silver, polyurethane paint, stainless steel pin.

"Thinking of you (portraits)" is a series of brooches that reproduces the ear of the user, or that of the user's partner / friend/child etc.: each brooch is designed to order, and strives to render, much as a portrait painting would, the specific features of the sitter's ear. It finds its inspiration in the Victorian hairwork popular towards the end of the 19th century: mourning and sentimental jewellery, usually presented in the form of lockets, featuring a painted portrait on its visible side, and a braided hairlock on the flipside, or inside the medallion. It is poised, as the locket was, between remains and representation. Each brooch is delivered in a box, pinned to a folded newspaper page featuring a personal ad describing the sitter.

hello! My name is W, 2006-07

set of six brooches, dental gold, dental ceramics.

Piece alongside the medal, which rewards military excellence, we find the trophy: no less a carrier of martial symbolism or an object of ornamental use, I found it surpasses the medal in indicating the flipside of victory, as it is usually procured directly from the carnage that conquest necessarily leaves behind. Quoth Melville, describing Ahab's Ship:
"She was apparelled like any barbaric Ethiopian emperor, his neck heavy with pendant of polished ivory. She was a thing of trophies. A cannibal of a craft, tricking herself forth in the chased bones of her enemies."
This set of brooches was created in response to the ANTI-WAR medals project initiated in 2003 by gallery Velvet da Vinci, in San Fransisco.

getting old sucks. 2005-06





Benjamin Lignel


About Benjamin
The particulars of my training (two years of furniture design, and five days in jewellery making) defined the way I initially approached jewellery: I concerned myself primarily with notions of function and context of use, and usually worked towards self-appointed briefs, whilst one step removed from actual manufacture. Even though I am gradually taking over the manufacture of my work, I believe it continues to offer a design-led alternative to our craft-based profession: as an extended family of individual objects that hope to tackle specific aspects of body adornment - with little concern for overall stylistic or technical homogeneity.

About the work
I have been working for the last couple of years on series of pieces that try to map out how our perception of the body has changed, as new practices in medicine, body adornment and corporeal aesthetics influence, and sometimes contradict, more traditional views of the body, and the way we interact with it. My working hypothesis is that a vulgarization of medical knowledge on the one hand, and the explosion of body-altering products and practices on the other hand, will have a lasting effect on how we project ourselves on (in?) the body. For starters, the 19th century notion of corporeal integrity, premissed on the conservation of the body as a whole (one indivisible organism), is rapidly being superseded by the notion of body as Work in Progress: the question is less and less whether your body is intact, pure, but which version you are currently using. And, what sort of dressing would you like with it.