BRANKOPOPOVICBLOG: Jewellery and Product Design 2013 at ABKM

Sangji Yun

While in search for Jewellery and Product design Graduation Exhibition I got confused. First of all as the exhibition did not take place in their classroom but more than that because of the conceptual approach of most of the 2013 class.
In past years the presented projects where rather traditional ready-to-use products and jewellery. This year the graduation projects where autonomous, it seemed more based on research. One of the projects is a book about design. Esra Lemmens presented 'Master piece' book where she reveals the mindset of eight prominent Dutch designers. She describes the objective for collaborating designs of the company IKEA, while integrating this information with the evolution of Dutch design over the last two centuries.
Furthermore Ilona Brand researched the morals of fairy tales and based on that presented five jewellery pieces/objects.
Sangji Yun went for a more personal approach with mirrors that can allow her to confront her past and guide her in self-identification process. Trying to understand the feeling of sadness caused by immigration from one country to another she discovered psychoanalytic theaory of Jacques Lacan 'The Mirror Stage'. She presented 'Confrontation with the past - Stranger' project.
Anke Huyben, Anika Gwosdz and Christie Schellings prove once again the endless fascinations for the body and its imperfections. Christie's graduation collection consists of three cosmetic protheses that can help a sertain person to get closer to his or her personal body ideal. Anke Huyben took it from a personal point of view and the dissatisfaction she sometimes feels about her own body. She expressed this dissatisfactions, 'without offering solutions', into pretty images as a resolution to her 'problem'. As she stated 'The work is an honest representation of me'. In addition Anika Gwosdz played with gendered body and the dressing according the rules and tradition. She created men's footwear that plays with the masculinity and femininity. In the design she combined the most known aspects of feminine and masculine footwear.
The projects of Lian van Wanrooij and Maurice Arntz can be put in a more traditional product design category but nevertheless both interesting aesthetics.
With the project "Every child is an Artist, Irene Rothuizen gives tribute to the children of the refugee centre. The project arose from collaboration with "The Happiness", a foundation that allows children in various refugee centres to escape from their traumatic background. In this project designers are the children. They have been guided in the design process through several workshops.
Each year one of the best Graduation exhibitions at ABK Maastricht can be found the Jewellery and Product Design department. This year it looks like it grew to another level, it reminds me a lot of the quality of the Design Academy Eindhoven. I am curious if the 2013 class is an exception or will this development continue in the coming years.
In any case, I hope you will enjoy the pictures in this report as much as I enjoyed the exhibition.

http://www.jewelleryandproductdesign2013.nl