AVS. Arkitektúr verktækni skipulag - 01.09.2003, Side 34

Ásrún Kristjánsdóttir, Designer
Liv Blávarp, jewellery
„Jewellery should appeal to the
senses and the heart. They
should echo our feelings. Nobody
is perfect. The same applies to
jewellery. Perfect jewellery creates
distance and our feeling of beauty
is weakened."
These are the words of Liv
Blávarp, a Norwegian jewellery
designer who put up a brilliant
exhibition at the Nordic House in
August-October. Liv, who is
a qualified metalworker and jew-
ellery designer, comes from a
family of furniture designers and
started early to make wooden
objects. For her jewellery, she
uses many different types of
wood and often uses horn and
bone to complete the picture.
The colours are sometimes
sharp, sometimes soft. She con-
jures forth hues and surfaces that
make you want to touch.
Personal, lyrical, musical and
artistic - natural.
Necklace or Collar
The objects are designed to
touch but are nevertheless inde-
pendent forms, sculptures gov-
erned by their own laws, beautiful
from every direction. From the
outside, strong complete forms
made up of numerous small parts
chase each other, bending and
flowing. Connectors and locks
are made of metal, hidden from
view. In many instances, one can
see brilliant technical solutions,
fascinating from the engineering
point of view. Liv talks about
her work as a composer and
asks questions. Changing form,
water is always water, but what
form has water? What form has
the body? Form changes with
movement. She draws pictur-
esque memories from her youth:
„My first experience of working
with expensive materials. Yes I
remember you well, Ms.
Western.”
She refers to history. Hatshepsut,
the Egyptian woman-Pharaoh
who with her own hand put two
crowns on her head. She loves
Hatsepsut.
The work of Liv has reference to
history and Nature. Necklace for
Joan of Arc, Cesaria, Venus,
Buffalo and Bird. These works
are all of tree and different
species can be mentioned, elm,
birch, mahogany and brown-
wood. Brownwood or puchenholz
is well known to older lcelanders
as it was used for the teeth in
rakes before more modern mate-
rials took their place. This wood,
the hardest in the world, is today
used in the finest cut objects and
is prominent in Liv's latest work.
The divides between cultural
worlds, art, craft and design
merge in the work of Liv Blávarp
and they are special. Waves,
dense rythm, curves, softness.
Her jewellery expresses all this. ■
The objects in the Nordic House are all
owned by Americans, except one
which is owned by the Queen of
Norway.
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