Silence Please!
Works Without Words, Silent Jewellery.
Curated by Ramon Puig Cuyàs
May 28 – July 5, 2015
Montreal, May 19, 2015 – Invited by Galerie Noel Guyomarc’h to curate an exhibition, internationally renowned Catalan artist Ramon Puig Cuyàs presents a reflection on our ability to see and appreciate art in today’s busy world. Entitled Silence Please!, the exhibition, which presents the work of 17 international artists, requires quiet and contemplation in order to appreciate the skill involved in creating these works, as well as their inherent meaning and poetry.
An exhibition to explore and contemplate!
Invited artists:
Trinidad Contreras (Spain), Eva Girbes (Spain), Herman Hermsen (The Netherlands), Natsumi Kaihara (Japan), Dongchun Lee (Korea), Sandra Llusà (Spain), Claire Lavendhomme (Belgique), Judy McCaig (Great Britain), Marilia Maria Mira (Portugal), Marc Monzo (Spain), Elisabet Puig (Spain), Tore Svensson (Sweden), Fatima Tocornal (Spain), Julia Turner (United States), Jessica Turrell (Great-Britain), Silvia Walz (Spain), Ramon Puig Cuyàs (Spain)
Ramon Puig Cuyàs wrote about his exhibition project:
Ours is said to be the “Information Age”, one in which we are surrounded and bombarded by countless messages, and live with multiple machines and electronic devices which provide us with information of all kinds. The flow of information is so profuse and so fast that we perceive it as “cacophony”, an aural confusion or noise pollution, similar to visual pollution, as well as a mixture of ideas, concepts, judgments and prejudices which eventually diminish – and practically impede – our ability to feel, to look and listen calmly, or simply to think.
In the art world, some artists talk incessantly about their work, justifying it with words and theories and concepts that, at times, become more important than the work or the creative act, thus contaminating the viewer’s ability to comprehend, and conditioning his or her ability to freely interpret the work.
It is essential to rediscover the value of silence as a form of communication. Listening to the silence means listening to the other, putting oneself in his or her place in order to understand. Silence is like a slow, deep breath. A breath that is necessary in order to create and to feel.
The work of artistic creation requires the will to act, the ability to concentrate, the desire to risk, and a great deal of silence. The act of creating requires a silence within, which allows one to hear the inner voice clearly, and also to be able to hear the “conversation” that flows between our hands, the materials, the shapes and our thinking. As a spectator, it is also necessary to be silent when one stands before the artwork, to hear the voice, the murmurs of the artist who speaks through his works, through his poetic language. Silence helps us better understand what we really feel, not what we think we see and feel, but the authentic voice that speaks from the depths of our being, without intermediaries or “noise” that constrain our eyes and our interpretation.
This silence distances us from materialism, and brings us closer to symbolic and poetic language in order to more fully comprehend the real meaning of the work of art. Through this silence – an expressive silence – and its symbolic universe, the jeweller-artist can give his personal view of the world around him. He can examine the material with his hands, shape it, turn memory and experience into small objects, jewellery to be worn as an amplification of our identity, while at the same time, these works are a very personal form of communication. A communication made up of signs, not words.
There is a Chinese saying, “Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know which is why their lips are silent.” The jewellers in this exhibition remain silent, but speak eloquently with their hands. This exhibition of “silent jewellery” is a selection of works created by jewellers who worked surrounded by silence, a silence that may be heard, an expressive silence, a potent silence.
These works demonstrate that silence and expressiveness go together. They are jewels that invite us to see, feel and hear the shapes of silence.
The exhibition continues until July 5, 2015.
Read the interview by Susan Cummins with Ramon Puig Cuyàs about this exhibition. Art Jewelry Forum
