Tag Archives: Marina Elenskaya

Have you seen the new Current Obsession Magazine yet? It’s basically the very first of its kind!!!!!!!!

CO originally existed as a blog about contemporary jewelry and then a website (promoting the field through the voices of the artists) created by the talented, Marina Elenskaya (artist and editor in chief of the magazine). And as of March 2013, CO now also exists as a bi-annual printed magazine that debuted at this year’s Schmuck. Marina and Sarah Mesritz (the creative director of the mag) launched the first issue, The Archetype, in Munich, which was really exciting for me because they invited me to be a contributing writer/editor for the issue.

Here I am at Schmuck after having my first look inside the magazine. It’s the first time i’ve been published, and in the photo above, the page is opened to my introduction and interview with Karl Fritsch. The segment shows new pieces by the artist that were also exhibited at two Schmuck exhibitions.

Click —–> here for a peak inside.

I also had the pleasure of working with Alexander Blank on another interview about his new series, also exhibited at Schmuck.

The CO team also asked me to help them create a guide for all the Schmuck events this year to help visitors navigate the city. After having contacted every artist or organizer for all the collateral Schmuck exhibition (for photos and information regarding their event), we tried to create a descriptive teaser, basically CO’s Schmuck 2013 picks, highlighting various initiatives we thought were worth seeing. To see the PDF, click —-> here

Below are some photos of Marina and Sarah giving a presentation at the Messe, where the main Schmuck show was situated.

To learn more about the wonderful backpack and suitcase by the design team Hanemaai shown above, click —> here!

Above, Volker Atrops giving some critical feedback to the team, which you should feel free to do also! We are always looking for comments and are eager to hear what you think.

Marina and contributing editor/husband, Chris van der Kaap at the show, Schmuck You, presented by Galerie Biró Junior and featuring the work of Réka Lorincz and Flora Vági.

Super babes Marina with artist and friend, Suzanne Beautyman

Sarah Mestriz toting around the mag and the guide at the Pinakothek der Moderne.

Below is artist/researcher/writer, Aaron Decker, another contributing editor of the CO magazine.

Some team shots, below with superstar, Tanel Veenre

CURRENT OBSESSION
– is a new printed magazine about jewellery and its relation to different fields of art — performance, illustration, photography, etc. Apart from jewellery artists and critics, we feature material researchers, fashion designers, collagists and many more. Our goal is to create a different dimension for jewellery in printed environment. We tell inspiring stories about people and places, touching upon subjects like value, language and presentation.
Our motto is “JEWELLERY IS WHAT YOU MAKE OF IT “

check it out: OPEN CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS !

“The second issue of the magazine will be about “The Youth” – students, newly graduates, alumni and up-and-coming artists, keeping in mind that being young is not about the age, but about the attitude!
Release date of the second issue – October 2013 launched in Barcelona JOYA/Amsterdam SIERAAD/Eindhoven DDW.

We have created this open call for contributions because we are searching for:

– Projects that connect jewellery to other fields of art/design/fashion: performance, photography, illustration, audiovisual, collage, sculpture, etc.)
– Research projects: material, formal and theoretical
– Great new jewellery!
– Hardworking writers!

Our goal is to show the diversity and potency of the upcoming generation, to outline their standpoint and tendencies and to address the problems and choices the young makers are subject to.

To contribute or for more information, please email to:
info@current-obsession.com with THE YOUTH as the message subject.

Deadline: beginning of June 2013 “

————–

Check out the CO website to order a physical copy of the first issue.

or, here is the LIST OF RETAILERS :

+Klimt02 BARCELONA
+Galerie Rob Koudijs AMSTERDAM
+Gallery Ra AMSTERDAM
+Athenaeum Nieuwscentrum AMSTERDAM
+Do You Read Me!? BERLIN
+You Are Here EINDHOVEN
+Galerie Noel Guyomarc’h MONTREAL (QUEBEC)
+ ATTA Gallery BANGKOK
+Chrome Yellow Books LONDON
+ Galley P’LACE DRESDEN

tidbit of the day – Ulrich Reithofer and current obsession

May 27, 2012

art (question mark), jewelry (or jewellery), semantics

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The following is an excerpt from an interview given by Marina Elenskaya of Current Obsession and artist Ulrich Reithofer

C.O: What would be the definition for you: I’m a contemporary artist, I’m a jeweller, I’m a craftsman.

U.R.: I am contemporary because I’m now. And I’m a jeweller because thats what I’m aiming for, is to be carried away, taken with someone. That the work is possibly given as a present with meaning of something related to jewellery: birthday, wedding, engagement… I just made a ring for a new born baby and his mother and this is how I’m a jeweller.

C.O: Why did you choose jewellery as a medium? Why not expressing yourself through sculpture?

U.R.: Well, I anyway do sculpture, because a ring is a sculpture, brooch is a sculpture, parts of a necklace are always sculptural. But sculpture is based on the ground, there is a relation to the human body in size, but it is based somewhere and stays there. The jewellery is somehow worn and at a certain moment comes to the body and creates this personal relation with the body, it communicates only through the body. And the sculpture would not do that.

C.O.: So the act of wear is important for you, its not to be sitting in the box or hang on the wall?

U.R.: It is OK for me, but the object that I make, this sculpture has to imply the use. Even if its not wearable, even if it hurts when worn, then there is a statement about the non-wearability. But the human relation that lies in dimension to the body is important.

C.O.: About the work itself, how it looks now and what it embodies, how did you come to this?

U.R.: Its about putting things in a different prospective. Say, the chair, we know it as a furniture object in the room. What happens to the object in the room when its worn on the body?
Its the irritation that communicates. I think jewellery has to irritate to work. It has to be something that does not physically belong to you. It is not a pimple on your thumb, or a scratch on your cheek. It is something strange, but then does it communicate? Sometimes it just doesn’t. But sometimes someone will ask: “Why does she wear a fucking chair?!” That would mean I achieved my goal – I started a communication.

the rest of the interview can be seen —> here

DO NOT WAIT TO ACT… IF YOU’RE READY

March 11, 2012

art (question mark), everyone, everything, jewelry (or jewellery), semantics

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http://www.gerritrietveldacademie.nl/files/scriptie2011/sieraden/Sieraad_Elenskava.pdf <———- !!!!!

The link above happens to be the biggest golden nugget of a find to date. Ok I didn’t find it, it was sent to me by a new colleague and hopefully a future partner in crime. The link will take you to the thesis of Marina Elenskaya (founder of Current Obsession), who graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam last year. She and I have been in contact for a few weeks now, scheming away in hopes for bigger and better dialog and action within our field. If you haven’t yet checked out C-O, please do! There you will find interviews with Manfred Bischoff, work of rising super-start Adam Grinovich and other talented artists, as well as the full interview with Volker Atrops that I previously posted a bit of.

Marina too is a maker, yet her research on the state of the contemporary jewelry world is unlike most of what is out there… there really ain’t a whole lot. She talks about this in the thesis, and like me, she is very much invested in a clearer definition of the field while also questioning that very notion; part of jewelry’s incapability to be defined ultimately is one of it’s most unique qualifiers.

To get you excited, I have pulled out some tidbits! Here is the beginning of her first chapter, IDENTITY:

“Hello, what do you do?”

Status-anxiety is an ongoing issue within the field of applied arts. These tendencies of identity crisis are undoubtedly influencing the discourses in the field of Contemporary Jewellery as well. There is a certain strive for acknowledgment by the art world. But the precise hierarchy of the art world predicts us an unfortunate role of the inferior discipline. The position of an in-betweener is also not comfortable for many. People are trying to define themselves as artists, but it almost feels immodest to say it out loud. Definition has a lot to do with function and destination of the work. It has also to do with function and destination of the work. It has also to do with production, presentation, distribution and, most importantly– pricing. Jewellery wants to be priced as art, and not as craft. It means that the final product is judged upon its conceptual value and innovative thinking, rather than its material value and its quality.

above is a mind map of Marina’s conceptions in the thesis (YOU KNOW HOW I LOVE A GOOD DIAGRAM).

—GREATER THAN OR EQUAL TO

DEFINING CONTEMPORARY JEWELRY AND ITS RELATION TO VISUAL ART

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Tag Archives: Marina Elenskaya

Current Obsession Magazine Launch at Schmuck 2013

tidbit of the day – Ulrich Reithofer and current obsession

DO NOT WAIT TO ACT… IF YOU’RE READY