ornament - implement - navigational tool - measuring device - semaphore flag - football scarf - wall drawing - picture frame -

These brightly coloured beaded necklaces, by Manon van Kouswijk, slip between diagrammatic formalism when presented as a group on a wall, and loose, joyful wearability on the body. A first series titled Beads for Buildings and Bodies was shown at Alta Forma last year in the exhibition Wall Arms & Table Legs. In this second series of works, Manon pushes the ideas embodied in those earlier works to new logical, but surprising, points.

Glass seed beads, a highly decorative material, are used in a methodical way: numerical sequences and elementary geometrical shapes are beaded to become objects that can be pinned on the wall as 3-dimensional material drawings or worn on the body in multiple ways. In this shift from architecture to body, from the wall to the chest, they transform from static geometry to flexible, playful jewellery.

Manon van Kouswijk is a Dutch Australian artist who has lived and worked in Melbourne since 2010. She studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam where was Head of the Jewellery department from 2007 until 2010. Her work is exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide and is part of collections including National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of South Australia, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, the Danner Collection at the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris and the Røsska Museet, Sweden, among others.

Image: Manon van Kouswijk, necklaces, glass seed beads, dimensions variable. Photo by Fred Kroh.



Manon van Kouswijk catalogue