Noli Me Tangere

2019

BROOCH (golden cardboard, pebble, 18k gold wire, oxidised copper, paint, 18k gold pin wire)

This piece was made and selected for Gioielli In Fermento, VIII Edition, on the theme "In Search of Quality". The theme implied that quality is an intrinsic value that can and will be appreciated unquestionably and objectively:

"In a blind tasting, different palates agree on the finest characteristics of wine according to what they perceive. The quality of the tasting dominates radically on individual preferences and shows an objective feedback. An excellent wine will register a number of decisive preferences, much larger and shared than the number of all single visions. The theme to be addressed within Gioielli in Fermento 2019, draws inspiration from this further element of observation coming from the world of wine: the unquestionable role of the quality factor."

The "Noli Me Tangere" ("Do Not Touch Me" or "Do Not Let Anybody Touch Me", depending on translations) biblical episode tells of Jesus's request to Mary Magdalene that she have faith that the figure she is seeing in resurrection in indeed him. It is a request for her to maintain her faith that the "quality" of his being has not changed. My interpretation of the theme is that quality is normally nothing but a construct, dictated by shared norms of observation and appreciation. Mine is then a call to have faith in our search for and attribution of quality.

I chose this quote by Jiddu Krishnamurti to accompany the piece in the catalogue because it speaks so much about my approach to materials, my practice and life: 

"We never look deeply into the quality of a tree; we never really touch it, feel its solidity, its rough bark, and hear the sound that is part f the tree. Not the sound of wind through the leaves, not the breeze of a morning that flutters the leaves, but its own sound, the sound of the trunk and the silent sound of the roots. You must be extraordinarily sensitive to hear the sound. This sound is not the noise of the world... but sound as part of the universe." (J. Krishnamurti, Krishnamrurti to Himself, 1984)